Lucifer’s Shadow - Softcover

Hewson, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006510159 ISBN 13: 9780006510154

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001

Synopsis

When a young Englishman arrives in Venice for a summer job, he finds that the city’s glittering facade masks a much darker reality. Cataloguing an old library, he discovers a lost musical masterpiece, and is drawn into a game of deception, with its roots in the political minefield of Vivaldi’s Venice.

Venice 1733: the young Lorenzo Scacchi has just arrived in the city to work for his uncle at the renowned printing press of Ca’ Scacchi. Awed by Venice’s splendour, Lorenzo discovers a world of possibilities he has never before dreamed of. But he finds a darker side too. Ordered by his uncle to chaperone a beautiful and gifted violinist who cannot openly reveal her identity, Lorenzo is drawn into a dangerous game of deception, with horrifying consequences.

More than 250 years later, a young Englishman, Daniel Forster, comes to Venice for a summer job and is immediately seduced by the city’s beauty and exoticism. Cataloguing a library in the Ca’ Scacchi, Daniel discovers the manuscript of an anonymous eighteenth-century concerto. Soon he has become involved in an elaborate scam, leading to a vertiginous spiral of criminal conspiracy and erotic pursuit.

David Hewson brilliantly interweaves two stories of intrigue and corruption, set centuries apart, and eventually draws them together in a stunning double-twist ending. Complex, beautiful, suspenseful, Lucifer’s Shadow is Hewson’s most tantalising and rewarding novel yet.

About this title

Review:

Praise for Semana Santa:

‘The claustrophobia of an introverted society ... is portrayed with subtle skill: the personal passions come across with intensity and power. Semana Santa is a satisfying full-blooded read’ The Times

Praise for Epiphany:

‘Mystery, menace and guilt ... building tension to a seismic explosion’ Daily Telegraph

Praise for Solstice:

‘Hewson’s inventiveness never flags... the characterization and dialogue are way above thriller norms, and the science is ingenious and plausible’ Sunday Times

From the Back Cover:

Venice 1733: the young Lorenzo Scacchi has just arrived in the city to work for his uncle at the renowned printing press of Ca’ Scacchi. Awed by Venice’s splendour, Lorenzo discovers a world of possibilities he has never before dreamed of. But he finds a darker side too. Ordered by his uncle to chaperone a beautiful and gifted violinist who cannot openly reveal her identity, Lorenzo is drawn into a dangerous game of deception, with horrifying consequences.

More than 250 years later, a young Englishman, Daniel Forster, comes to Venice for a summer job and is immediately seduced by the city’s beauty and exoticism. Cataloguing a library in the Ca’ Scacchi, Daniel discovers the manuscript of an anonymous eighteenth-century concerto. Soon he has become involved in an elaborate scam, leading to a vertiginous spiral of criminal conspiracy and erotic pursuit.

David Hewson brilliantly interweaves two stories of intrigue and corruption, set centuries apart, and eventually draws them together in a stunning double-twist ending. Complex, beautiful, suspenseful, Lucifer’s Shadow is Hewson’s most tantalising and rewarding novel yet.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0006510159
• ISBN 13: 9780006510154
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528