|
It was but a few short months ago that David Hewson was reintroduced to American readers with A SEASON FOR THE DEAD, the first of a projected series of novels featuring Italian State Police detective Nic Costa. The second novel in the series, THE VILLA OF MYSTERIES, has already seen European publication and is scheduled for American release next year. Hewson has a bit of a backlist that has not seen publication here. The issuance of LUCIFER'S SHADOW only a few months after A SEASON FOR THE DEAD is a welcome and important step toward remedying that literary shortfall, while constituting a blessing for readers who, with one novel, had become enthralled with Hewson's intricate plotting, and intelligent and literary narration.
LUCIFER'S SHADOW consists of two stories, both of which are set in Venice but separated in time by almost three centuries. The events of the past dovetail into those of the present, with parallels that surprise, astound, shock and delight. A printer's apprentice in 18th-century Venice is drawn into a web of duplicity, jealousy and murder that centers on a brilliant orchestral work created by an anonymous composer, who is in fact a Jewess. Her nationality and gender compel her to keep her background and identity a secret, but also leave her vulnerable to blackmail.
In present-day Venice, meanwhile, an English student named Daniel Forster has accepted a summer job that ostensibly involves cataloguing a private collector's library. Forster soon discovers, however, that his job and his employer are not what they initially seemed to be. Forster is in fact to be the go-between for his employer with a petty thief who has acquired an antique violin, a prize that is also sought by the shadowy Hugo Massiter, a wealthy and ruthless figure whose life is shrouded in fear and rumor. Forster's retrieval of the violin serves as the catalyst for a star-crossed romance with Laura, the household's servant, whose haunting beauty slowly and inexorably brings Forster under her hesitant sway. The acquisition of the violin, and the discovery of an abandoned musical manuscript, also provides the catalyst for a succession of violent acts that lead all concerned toward certain destruction.
The two tales alternate chapters, for the most part, with Hewson keeping things moving at a deceptively sedate pace. He is no particular hurry to reach either denouement, yet everything is set forth with purpose. Hewson's research for this book is magnificent, as it was for A SEASON FOR THE DEAD. The reader is transported across space and time in this work, which demonstrates that the elements, good and bad, that make up the human condition remain constant, even with the tolling of the centuries. The parallels between both of the stories in LUCIFER'S SHADOW is presented subtlety, and when they converge for a brief moment, it is all the more startling for the presentation.
Delacorte Press has somewhat defied conventional wisdom by publishing two works by a new (to these shores) author within a few months of each other. This was no doubt done with the knowledge that anyone who had read A SEASON FOR THE DEAD would welcome more Hewson, and welcome it immediately. For myself, it would be fine if every month brought the arrival of a new Hewson novel. There is no one who is doing this type of work --- work that by turns has echoes of Christie, Dickens, O. Henry and even Poe on each page, and yet is unshakably contemporary and unmistakably Hewson. LUCIFER'S SHADOW, set in different time periods, is itself a timeless work, a classic. Highest possible recommendation.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
• Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.
© Copyright 1996-2008, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
