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THE SEVENTH SACRAMENT
David Hewson
Delacorte Press
Thriller
ISBN-10: 0385339569
ISBN-13: 9780385339568
THE SEVENTH SACRAMENT is the latest installment in David Hewson’s series
of novels featuring Italian policeman Nic Costa. As is always the case with Hewson,
one must expect nothing less than the unexpected. Back in Rome after the events
that transpired in THE LIZARD'S BITE, Costa and his partner, the quietly enigmatic
Gianni Peroni, investigate a series of murders tied not only to an unsolved disappearance
from over a decade previously but also to a religion that was eradicated thousands
of years ago.
Hewson has made a practice of bringing illumination to the dark and dusty corners
of history. He does so again in his newest work, casting light upon Mithraism,
a religious cult that flourished among the military and bureaucratic components
of the Roman Empire until it was all but eradicated by the Emperor Constantine
in 312 AD. As Hewson advises in his short but fascinating prologue, subterranean
Mithraic temples have been discovered through the Roman Empire’s military
frontiers, including several in Rome itself.
Fourteen years before the events in THE SEVENTH SACRAMENT, a seven-year-old boy
--- the son of Giorgio Bramante, a respected and feared archaeologist --- vanishes
into the labyrinth of a newly discovered Mithraic temple. His father, in a rage,
murders one of the students whom he believes to be responsible. The man goes to
prison, a police commissario resigns in disgrace, and the boy is never found.
As the contemporary events in the book commence, Bramante is released from prison
and almost immediately resumes his quest for revenge --- a quest that appears
to include Leo Falcone, Costa and Peroni’s inspector as a target. Their
investigation incorporates a wide array of disciplines --- from archaeology to
biology, from mythology to computer science, from the basest emotions to the highest
ideals --- before the fascinating puzzle of Bramante’s motives is revealed,
and the final fate of his son, lost for so many years, is ultimately uncovered.
THE SEVENTH SACRAMENT is possibly Hewson’s most accessible work, providing
not one but several new wrinkles to one of the mystery genre’s most reliable
themes --- the abducted child --- and contrasting the ancient and modern worlds,
even while setting up scenarios for future novels in the series. If you are unfamiliar
with previous volumes, now is the time to jump on board.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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