David Hewson: The Lizard's Bite (UK 2014)

From the Publisher:
The fourth novel in Hewson's riveting Italian crime series
Life was never black and white in Italy... Something about the place both disturbed and interested him. Venice reminded him of a bad yet familiar relative, dangerous to know, difficult to let go.

As their exile in Venice draws to a close, Roman detectives Nic Costa and Gianni Peroni are ordered to investigate an apparently open-and-shut case, a fire in a glass foundry that has claimed two lives, so all they want is to wrap it up quickly.

However, as they dig more deeply into the insular glass-making community on Murano and the strange Arcangeli family, things don't quite add up. With increasing pressure from above to finish quickly, events spiral quickly out of control - with devastating consequences...

David Hewson: The Lizard's Bite. Pan, ISBN: 9781447267713 (March, 2014), 512 p., £14.99.

David Hewson: The Lizard's Bite (USA 2007)

From the Publisher:
On an August night on a small island near Venice, a fire explodes in a glassmaking shop. When help arrives, two people are dead, a rich Englishman is implicated, and investigators from Rome are assigned a case no one wants them to solve... In this spellbinding new novel featuring Detective Nic Costa, author David Hewson weaves together the rich fabric of Europe's most beguiling city with a riveting tale of passion, corruption, and the poisonous bite of betrayal.

On their private island, the Arcangelo family defy the world: living in a decaying palazzo, making glass in a terrifying, archaic furnace, watching their absurd exhibition hall sink into disrepair. But now the world is coming to their dying outpost in a crumbling corner of a Venice that tourists never see. Police boats and vaporetti bring investigators, curiosity seekers, and one man who plans to own the property himself. With two family members consumed by the foundry fire, both mystery and opportunity have been bared to the bone.

On special assignment from Rome, Detective Nic Costa, along with his partner, his boss, and a dogged pathologist named Teresa Lupo, is getting in the way of progress, Venetian-style. They know that Uriel Arcangelo and his wife were murdered. They know that a predatory Englishman must be a suspect, as is the family of the murdered woman. And while everyone wants the Roman cops to give up and go home, they can't - because a matter of desire, death, and lies has just turned murderously on one of them...

A tale as bewitching as its lush backdrop, The Lizard's Bite is an astounding alchemy of superb writing, vibrant atmosphere, and sheer, gripping suspense.

David Hewson: The Lizard's Bite. A Novel of Suspense. Dell Books, ISBN: 0440243009 (May, 2007), 528 p., $6.99.

David Hewson: The Lizard's Bite (UK 2007)

From the Publisher:
Life was never black and white in Italy... Something about the place both disturbed and interested him. Venice reminded him of a bad yet familiar relative, dangerous to know, difficult to let go.

As their exile in Venice draws to a close, Roman detectives Nic Costa and Gianni Peroni are ordered to investigate an apparently open-and-shut case, a fire in a glass foundry that has claimed two lives, so all they want is to wrap it up quickly.

However, as they dig more deeply into the insular glass-making community on Murano and the strange Arcangeli family, things don't quite add up. With increasing pressure from above to finish quickly, events spiral quickly out of control - with devastating consequences...

David Hewson: The Lizard's Bite. Pan, ISBN: 0330435949 (January, 2007), 500 p., £6.99.

David Hewson: The Lizard's Bite (USA 2006)

From the Publisher:
On an August night on a small island near Venice, a fire explodes in a glassmaking shop. When help arrives, two people are dead, a rich Englishman is implicated, and investigators from Rome are assigned a case no one wants them to solve... In this spellbinding new novel featuring Detective Nic Costa, author David Hewson weaves together the rich fabric of Europe's most beguiling city with a riveting tale of passion, corruption, and the poisonous bite of betrayal.

On their private island, the Arcangelo family defy the world: living in a decaying palazzo, making glass in a terrifying, archaic furnace, watching their absurd exhibition hall sink into disrepair. But now the world is coming to their dying outpost in a crumbling corner of a Venice that tourists never see. Police boats and vaporetti bring investigators, curiosity seekers, and one man who plans to own the property himself. With two family members consumed by the foundry fire, both mystery and opportunity have been bared to the bone.

On special assignment from Rome, Detective Nic Costa, along with his partner, his boss, and a dogged pathologist named Teresa Lupo, is getting in the way of progress, Venetian-style. They know that Uriel Arcangelo and his wife were murdered. They know that a predatory Englishman must be a suspect, as is the family of the murdered woman. And while everyone wants the Roman cops to give up and go home, they can't - because a matter of desire, death, and lies has just turned murderously on one of them...

A tale as bewitching as its lush backdrop, The Lizard's Bite is an astounding alchemy of superb writing, vibrant atmosphere, and sheer, gripping suspense.

David Hewson: The Lizard's Bite. A Novel of Suspense. Delacorte Press, ISBN: 0385339550 (October, 2006), 417 p., $22.00.

David Hewson: The Lizard's Bite (UK 2006)

From the Publisher:
Things are looking up for Nic Costa and Gianni Peroni -- their humiliating exile in Venice is nearly at an end, and their long-awaited holiday is about to begin. So when they are ordered to investigate an apparently open-and-shut case, a fire in a glass foundry that has claimed two lives, all they want is to wrap it up quickly. However, as they dig more deeply into the insular glass-making region of Murano and the strange Arcangeli family, things don't quite add up. Under pressure from above to finish quickly so that urbane British millionaire Hugo Massiter's property deal can be concluded, events spiral quickly out of control with devastating consequences...

When they realise that the only verdict the local police are interested in is accidental death and a speedily closed file, Costa and Peroni find themselves embroiled in a clandestine and dangerous investigation into the shadowy world that lies beneath Venice's sparkling facade -- and where the usual rules do not apply.

David Hewson: The Lizard's Bite. Macmillan, ISBN: 1405050179 (March, 2006), 386 p., £12.99.