The Medici Murders by David Hewson

Carnevale chaos served up with a generous helping of history

The Medici Murders is set in
Venice during Carnevale

This novel set in Venice has a very likeable main character, a retired archivist named Arnold Clover, who suddenly finds himself having to help the Carabinieri with a murder investigation.

Arnold and his wife had planned to live out their retirement years in Venice and had managed to buy a small apartment there, but on the eve of their departure from England to start their new life, Arnold’s wife unexpectedly died because of a deteriorating health condition.

With his house sold and nothing left for him in London, Arnold sadly had to make the move alone. But after a year, he has settled in and, although still missing his wife, he has made some friends in Venice.

But then his peace is shattered when ghosts from his past arrive in la Serenissima and bring their troubles to his door.

David Hewson’s novel, The Medici Murders, which was published in 2022, is set during the annual Carnevale, a time of year when tourists roam the chilly calle of Venice wearing bizarre costumes.

Arnold, as a British expat, is commandeered by Carabinieri officer Valentina Fabbri to help him solve the murder of a well-known British TV historian, Marmaduke Godolphin.

Although Arnold has never thought of Godolphin as a friend, he knows of him because Godolphin had been a tutor at Arnold’s Cambridge college. Arnold had also recently been hired by him, via a third party, a Venetian archivist he has met, to go through some historical papers Godolphin has acquired.

Among the papers, Godolphin believed there would be previously unknown information about the murder of fugitive assassin Lorenzino de’ Medici in Venice, exactly 500 years before.

With Godolphin on the trip are other people Arnold remembers from his Cambridge days, who had been part of Godolphin’s exclusive circle of budding historians, while Arnold had been a mere looker-on.

The Medici Murders was
published in 2022

When Godolphin is found murdered in the exact spot Lorenzino de’ Medici had been killed in, the Carabinieri demand Arnold’s assistance, because the people who have accompanied Godolphin to Venice have now become their main suspects.

This novel will appeal to readers of Donna Leon and Philip Gwynne Jones, or to anyone who enjoys a crime novel set in Venice with a generous sprinkling of Italian history. 

David Hewson is a former journalist with The Times, The Sunday Times and The Independent. He has written more than 30 novels, including a series of crime novels set in Rome. He now lives near Canterbury in Kent.

The novel is a whodunit, but it also explores Arnold’s personal tragedy. After the retired archivist arrives at the solution to the mystery, he has the glimpse of a chance of a relationship with someone who never looked twice at him when they were at Cambridge together.

But Arnold shows his independent spirit and there is a surprise for the reader at the end. Let us hope David Hewson writes more about the adventures in Venice of this intelligent, retired archivist.

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Vengeance in Venice

A second murder mystery set in Venice by Philip Gwynne Jones

The Giardini della Biennale, which hosts the
Venice arts festival, is in the Castello district

Amateur sleuth Nathan Sutherland shows his compassionate side in Vengeance in Venice when he feels sorry for an artist who he meets at an exclusive event during the Venetian Biennale.

He senses Paul Considine, the artist, is nervous and vulnerable and feels even more sympathetic when he discovers that he has already received a scathing review from a Times art critic before the exhibition has even opened to the public.

That same critic, Gordon Blake-Hoyt, is present at the reception in the British pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale, to which Nathan has been invited in his role as honorary British Consul in Venice.

When the unpleasant GBH, as he is nicknamed, falls from a glass-floored corridor overlooking the exhibition and is decapitated by a vertical shard of glass that is part of the artworks on display, Nathan finds himself caught up in a murder mystery again. A postcard found in the victim’s pocket - of a painting by Artemesia Gentileschi showing Judith beheading Holofernes - indicates that the death was not just the result of a tragic accident.

Paul Considine is among the suspects but all Nathan’s instincts tell him that the artist is not the murderer and he sets out to try to prove it.

Nathan Sutherland returns
in Vengeance in Venice 

In theory, Nathan's unpaid job as honorary consul should be no more dangerous than helping British tourists who have lost their passports or become ill during their holidays, but as happened in The Venetian Game, Nathan can’t resist sleuthing and putting his own life and that of his friend, Dario, at risk. His paid job, as a freelance translator of diy manuals, clearly doesn’t provide him with enough excitement.

Nathan’s personal life has moved on since The Venetian Game and his friend, Federica, the art restorer, is now his partner. His lifestyle has become less chaotic as a result and he has become more domesticated and is enjoying cooking for two. But at one point he risks losing Federica by keeping her in the dark about his unofficial investigation.

The story is well told by Phillip Gwynne Jones against the beautiful backdrop of Venice in the early summer, as Nathan moves round the city by vaporetto and traghetto, pausing occasionally for Prosecco and cicchetti and savouring the art and architecture along the way.

Vengeance in Venice was published by Constable in 2018. 

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The Venetian Game

Intriguing mystery played out in a setting of which we never tire

As a Venice resident, Philip Gwynne Jones
gives his character local knowledge

I was very excited when I rather belatedly discovered The Venetian Game, the first in a series of crime novels set in Venice written by Philip Gwynne Jones.

It was refreshing to read a mystery that has Venice as the backdrop and to have the city described from a new point of view. I have been an avid reader of Donna Leon’s Brunetti series over the years and Donna Leon is, of course, a famous ex-pat American resident of Venice. Philip Gwynne Jones, who was born in Swansea and grew up in south Wales, is now also lucky enough to be living there, working as a teacher, writer, and translator.

I’ve been visiting Venice regularly for more than 45 years and think I know the city well, but not in the same way that a local can know and portray it, of course. I enjoyed the author’s descriptions of squares and bridges as his viewpoint character, Nathan Sutherland, makes his way through the calli using routes to get to places that only a local would know, in the same way that Commissario Brunetti moves about in Donna Leon’s novels.

As a series character, I thought Nathan was very promising. He lives in an apartment on Via dei Assassini, where he makes a living as an English translator of DIY manuals. He also serves as the English Honorary Consul to Venice and does his best to help British tourists who get into difficulty while visiting La Serenissima.

This is an excellent device because it is entirely plausible that Nathan will have regular dealings with the police while trying to sort out people’s problems. It is also likely that he will have developed a friendship with an officer who he can call on for help when he is engaged in sleuthing.

Nathan is separated from his wife, who we eventually learn has left to take up a job in Scotland. He has an unfriendly cat called Gramsci, named after a former leader of the Italian Communist party, Antonio Gramsci, who stood up to Mussolini and was imprisoned by the Fascists for 20 years. To add further interest, Nathan also has an attractive Italian female friend, Federica, who is an art restorer.

The Venetian Game is the first
of a series of detective novels

The mystery is set up at the beginning of the novel when a man in his sixties visits Nathan’s apartment and asks him to look after an item in his wall safe that is sealed in a padded envelope.  When Nathan tells him that won’t be possible without knowing what the package contains, the man offers to pay him ten thousand euros. When that doesn’t work, he threatens Nathan.

The package turns out to hold a valuable antique prayer book illustrated by an Italian master and Nathan eventually finds he has been drawn into a deadly game of art theft being played by two elderly brothers who live in a palace on the Grand Canal.

Nathan is terrorised at the top of a high building, beaten up and nearly drowned in a canal, and forced to flee his apartment, taking Gramsci with him, and make his escape by vaporetto, all because of the package.

I found myself wondering about Nathan at this point. Why doesn’t he take the package to the police and go and stay somewhere else for a while? What makes him want to put his life at risk to solve the mystery? Is it because he’s exceptionally brave, or has an insatiable curiosity, or is determined to see justice done?

The Venetian Game was first published in 2017. As I said earlier, I was a bit late discovering the series. I am looking forward to reading the sequel, Vengeance in Venice, which was published in 2018, to find out exactly what motivates Nathan.

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