Ritual of Fire
From The CWA Historical Dagger Winning Author
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4.7 • 16 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
The Crime Writers’ Association Historical Dagger Winning Author
Winner of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel
Ceremonial murder has returned to Florence. Only two men can end the destruction. Featuring Officer Cesare Aldo, Ritual of Fire is an atmospheric historical thriller by D. V. Bishop, set in Renaissance Italy.
‘Fast becoming a serious rival to C. J. Sansom and S. J. Parris’ – Historical Novel Society
Florence. Summer, 1538.
A night patrol finds a wealthy merchant hanged and set ablaze in the city’s main square. More than mere murder, this killing is intended to put the fear of God into Florence. Forty years earlier, puritanical monk Girolamo Savonarola was executed the same way. Does this new killing mean his fanatical disciples are reviving the monk’s regime of holy terror?
Cesare Aldo is busy hunting thieves in the Tuscan countryside, leaving Constable Carlo Strocchi to investigate the killing. When another merchant is burned alive in public, the rich start fleeing to their country estates. But the Tuscan hills can also be dangerous.
Growing religious fervour and a scorching heatwave drives the city ever closer to madness. Meanwhile, someone is stalking those powerful men who forged lifelong bonds in the dark days of Savonarola.
Unless Aldo and Strocchi work together, all of Florence will be consumed by an inferno of death and destruction . . .
‘Religion and lust? Money and politics? It’s all here, combined into a murderous brew’ – Andrew Taylor, bestselling author of The Royal Secret
Ritual of Fire is the third Cesare Aldo mystery, preceded by City of Vengeance and The Darkest Sin. The series continues with A Divine Fury.
Winner of the Crime Writers’ Association Historical Dagger for The Darkest Sin.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bishop returns to the rich vein of Renaissance Italian history for this limp third mystery featuring soldier-turned-investigator Cesare Aldo and his constable, Carlo Strocchi (following 2020's The Darkest Sin). The story begins in May 1538, a few months after the events of the prior entry, with Aldo, an officer of Florence's main criminal court, assigned to the Tuscan countryside. Meanwhile, Strocchi is called to the city's Piazza della Signoria in the dead of night, where he is assailed by the scent of burning flesh. A man has been hung on makeshift gallows, taken down, tied to a cart, and set ablaze; 40 years earlier, the charismatic Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola met the same fate in the same piazza. During Strocchi's investigation, another man is killed, and Aldo eventually leaves his post to help get to the bottom of both murders, which seem to have religious undertones. Pedestrian prose ("Those craving power believed the end always justified whatever actions were necessary for their desired outcome") and a plodding pace mostly sink this entry. Here's hoping the series regains momentum the next time out.
