From The Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger Winning Author
Cesare Aldo #3
Pan
May 2024
On Sale: April 23, 2024
400 pages ISBN: 1529096502 EAN: 9781529096507 Kindle: B0BD4XRQDW Trade Paperback / e-Book Add to Wish List
Ceremonial murder has returned to Florence. Only two men can end the destruction. Featuring Officer Cesare Aldo, Ritual of Fire is an atmospheric historical thriller by D. V. Bishop, set in Renaissance Italy.
'Fast becoming a serious rival to C. J. Sansom and S. J. Parris' – Historical Novel Society
Florence. Summer, 1538.
A night patrol finds a wealthy merchant hanged and set ablaze in the city’s main square. More than mere murder, this killing is intended to put the fear of God into Florence. Forty years earlier, puritanical monk Girolamo Savonarola was executed the same way. Does this new killing mean his fanatical disciples are reviving the monk’s regime of holy terror?
Cesare Aldo is busy hunting thieves in the Tuscan countryside, leaving Constable Carlo Strocchi to investigate the killing. When another merchant is burned alive in public, the rich start fleeing to their country estates. But the Tuscan hills can also be dangerous.
Growing religious fervour and a scorching heatwave drives the city ever closer to madness. Meanwhile, someone is stalking those powerful men who forged lifelong bonds in the dark days of Savonarola.
Unless Aldo and Strocchi work together, all of Florence will be consumed by an inferno of death and destruction . . .
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