Publication Day: 1 November 2018
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
ISBN: B07JGM35N4 (Kindle book)
Pages: 499
Category: Fiction, Crime, Mystery, Suspense, Police Procedural
ABOUT THE BOOK
Detective Nic Costa finds himself a stranger in a strange land when he’s sent to infiltrate the mob in a remote part of southern Italy.
Roman police detective Nic Costa has been sent undercover to Italy’s beautiful, remote Calabrian coast to bring in the head of the feared mob, the ‘Ndrangheta, who has offered to turn state witness for reasons of his own.
Hoping to reel in the biggest prize the state police have seen in years, the infamous Butcher of Palermo, Costa, and his team are aware the stakes are high. But the constant deception is taking its toll. Out of their depth in a lawless part of Italy where they are the outcasts, not the men in the hills, with their shotguns and rough justice, the detectives find themselves pitched as much against one another as the mob. As the tension rises, it’s clear the operation is not going to plan. Is Nic Costa getting too close to the enemy for comfort – and is there a traitor among them …?
MY REVIEW
This is my first in the Nic Costa Mystery series and it can stand on its own. Mr. Hewson affirms that the book is fiction with some facts such as the three principal Italian crime organizations, the Mafia, the Camorra, and the ’Ndrangheta, which he so cleverly incorporates into his story.
Hewson’s story is told from various points of view mostly by Nic Costa and his best friend and work partner Gianni Peroni. The characters are cunning, capable, and vulnerable and the main characters are placed as fish out of water in an unlawful, but beautiful and simple land.
It is a very complex, unpredictable, and fantastic journey into a foreign land and a forbidden society that builds to a shocking finale. Highly recommended.
Nic Costa Series
1. A Season for the Dead (2003)
2. The Villa of Mysteries (2003)
3. The Sacred Cut (2005)
4. The Lizard’s Bite (2006)
5. The Seventh Sacrament (2007)
6. The Garden of Evil (2008)
7. Dante’s Numbers (2008)
aka The Dante Killings
8. The Blue Demon (2010)
aka City of Fear
9. The Fallen Angel (2011)
10. The Savage Shore (2018)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Hewson is a former journalist with The Times, The Sunday Times and the Independent. He is the author of more than twenty-five novels including his Rome-based Nic Costa series which has been published in fifteen languages. He has also written three acclaimed adaptations of the Danish TV series, The Killing. He lives near Canterbury in Kent.
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