Ritual of Fire
A Cesare Aldo Mystery, Book Three
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Longlisted for the 2023 McIlvanney Prize
A thrilling and atmospheric new historical crime novel, set during a scorching Italian summer in 1530s Renaissance Florence, by award-winner D. V. Bishop. Ritual of Fire is the third book in the acclaimed Cesare Aldo series, following City of Vengeance and The Darkest Sin, winner of the 2023 CWA Historical Dagger Award.
Florence, 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 ritual 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, while someone is stalking 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.
About this Author
D. V. Bishop is the pseudonym of award-winner David Bishop. His love for the city of Florence and the Renaissance period meant there could be only one setting for his crime fiction. The first book in his Cesare Aldo series, City of Vengeance, won the Pitch Perfect competition at the Bloody Scotland Crime Festival and the NZ Booklovers Award for Best Adult Fiction Book. It was also shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. Bishop teaches creative writing at Edinburgh Napier University. Ritual of Fire is the third novel in the series, following The Darkest Sin.
Reviews
Praise for the Cesare Aldo series:
Ritual of Fire, Longlisted for the 2023 McIlvanney Prize
The Darkest Sin, Winner of the 2023 CWA Historical Dagger Award
City of Vengeance, Winner of the 2022 NZ Booklovers Award for Best Adult Fiction
"Cesare Aldo is facing another case which will demand all his ingenuity and tact: a man has been found, stabbed, in a convent, and shortly after an officer of the law is dredged up from the Arno. Political and social tensions run high in Florence in the 1530s, just after the assassination of the first Medici duke, and a false step would be all too easy. Bishop's well-researched story is gripping to the end." 2023 CWA Historical Dagger Award Jury
"A stunning debut novel, D V Bishop's City of Vengeance seamlessly blends historical fiction with crime thriller...Storytelling centred on intrigue and betrayal doesn't come more polished and captivating than this...Bishop shows this place and era to be as diverse in human desire and commerce as anywhere in the present." Judges for the 2022 NZ Booklovers Awards
"Bishop's knowledge of Florence shines through as the complex, cunning and compelling Aldo is plunged into a seething, simmering web of deadly ambition, perilous secrets, Medici politics and toxic rivalries...With timely insights into the inequalities facing women in Italian society in the 16th century, an exploration of the powerful role played by the Roman Catholic Church, and the growing tension around Aldo's covert sexuality, this twisting, turning tale is packed with immaculate research, rich detail and breathtaking authenticity." Lancashire Evening Post
"Fast becoming a serious rival to C. J. Sansom and S. J. Parris." Historical Novel Society
"A deft and engrossing historical thriller set in Renaissance Florence drawing on the fascinating and troubling legacy of Girolamo Savonarola. I thoroughly enjoyed the latest - and I think best - in DV Bishop's brilliant series." Anna Mazzola
"Bishop once again immerses us in sixteenth-century Florence and the heady intrigues of Renaissance Italy. Aldo is a magnificent creation." Vaseem Khan
"A blaze of a book, grabs you from the first flicker." S W Perry
"A first-class historical thriller...Bishop's spirited and richly detailed story is a tour-de-force." David Baldacci
"So fluid and fluent, the pages almost turn themselves." James Oswald
"Richly atmospheric...Transports you to another time and place." Ambrose Parry
"D. V. Bishop transports you to an utterly convincing sixteenth-century Florence, where the best and worst of human nature constantly circle each other in this tense mystery." S. G. MacLean
"It's hard to think of a better guide than D. V. Bishop to the brutality and glamour of Renaissance Florence. Religion and lust? Money and politics? It's all here, combined into a murderous brew." Andrew Taylor
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