Following on from City of Vengeance, I moved straight on to the second Ceseare Aldo book, The Darkest Sin, in preparation for today's stop. Big thanks to Kelly Lacey at Love Books Tours for the invitation and to the publisher for my review copy.
The Blurb
'He is fast becoming a serious rival to C. J. Sansom and S. J. Parris . . . Highly recommended' – Historical Novel Society
Florence. Spring, 1537.
When Cesare Aldo investigates a report of intruders at a convent in the Renaissance city’s northern quarter, he enters a community divided by bitter rivalries and harbouring dark secrets.
When a man’s body is found deep inside the convent, stabbed more than two dozen times, the case becomes even more complicated. Unthinkable as it seems, all the evidence suggests one of the nuns must be the killer.
Meanwhile, Constable Carlo Strocchi finds human remains pulled from the River Arno that belong to an officer of the law missing since winter. The dead man had many enemies, but who would dare kill an official of the city’s most feared criminal court?
As Aldo and Strocchi close in on the truth, identifying the killers will prove more treacherous than either of them could ever have imagined . . .
The Darkest Sin is an atmospheric historical thriller by D. V. Bishop, set in Renaissance Florence and is the sequel to City of Vengeance.
The Darkest Sin is published by Pan McMillan and was released as an ebook, audio book and in hardback on 3rd March 2022 and I'm paperback on 2nd March 2023.
My Review
I read this straight after City of Vengeance (you can find my review here) and was glad to be immersing myself in Aldo's world once more. In fact, I'm gutted the third one, Ritual of Fire, isn't out yet (due 1st June this year) because I just wanted to keep going!
Anyway, to the story. Aldo is following up on a report of intruders at one of the city's many convents, when a man's body is discovered within the convent walls. And it seems that no one other than the nuns has been at the convent. Meanwhile, Strocchi has a couple of days off to travel out of the city to introduce his new wife to his mother. But whilst away he also makes a discovery, one that he can't help but follow up on, even though it might affect his relationship with Aldo.
I'm sure you could read this as a standalone but a lot happened in the first book that is referenced (and explained to a degree) here so I definitely think you would benefit from reading City of Vengeance first.
As with the first book, nothing here is simple, and the story is much bigger than it first seems. There is plenty here to help new readers get to know Aldo and what kind of man he is and I've said more about this in my other review. He's a man you'll root for. I really liked that we found out a wee bit more about Aldo's early life in this book, it fleshes him out even more. But the secrets he keeps are threatened again here and I found that as tense as the main storyline.
I struggled a little bit with all the different nuns at the convent but loved the idea of the listening nun, whose sole role it is to listen to every conversation between a sister and any visitors to ensure that no impropriety takes place. I really liked the mother superior too.
Again, this was an immersive read. I loved all the sights and sounds of Florence and the large cast of characters Aldo meets in his job. Well researched and and beautifully written, The Darkest Sin is another fantastic book from Bishop. I don't know what's in store for Aldo in Ritual of Fire and beyond but, for now, I let out a cheer at the very last line of this book. I bet you do too.
The Author
Bishop was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship while writing City Of Vengeance. The novel won the Pitch Perfect competition at the 2018 Bloody Scotland international crime fiction festival, and was a Sunday Times Crime Club Pick of the Week. Global bestselling author David Baldacci called the novel 'a first-class historical thriller ... a tour-de-force.'
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