Book Review: Lucifer's Shadow

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Lucifer's Shadow     Amazon US HC Amazon UK PB Amazon Canada HC
David Hewson
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Thriller
Delacorte, Aug 2004, $21.95, 371 pp.

In 1733 Lorenzo Scacchi comes to Venice to work for his uncle at Ca' Scacchi printing press. Excited by the prospect of the big city, he immediately falls under the spell of the beautiful capital. Things are going well until his uncle assigns Lorenzo to chaperone a gifted violinist who must hide her identity or face condemnation. Lorenzo obeys, but quickly finds the deception is turning from dangerous to fascinating to deadly.

Two and half centuries later, Englishman Daniel Forster obtains summer employment cataloguing a library in the Ca' Scacchi. Excited by the prospect of Austria, he immediately falls under the spell of the beautiful capital. As he performs his duties, Daniel finds an anonymously written eighteenth-century concerto. That “treasure” leads to his involvement in a con that could turn from dangerous to fascinating to deadly.

David Hewson provides a fascinating look at Venice two-hundred fifty years apart in this exciting thriller spread centuries apart. The story line contains two plots that ultimately merge, but are also a two-edged sword as at times it is difficult to keep track of what is happening. Still the beauty of the city past and present comes to life inside the twin tales of intrigue and corruption bringing down the innocent.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner