by David Hewson Pan Macmillan HK$105
According to Britain's Daily Express, The Garden of Evil is 'impossible to put down'. What does this mean? It is so good no one can reproach it? Or the paperback remains glued to your hands? Neither interpretation is far from the truth. In the course of six books starring Rome-based detective Nic Costa, David Hewson has fashioned an increasingly satisfying combination of crime novel, historical caper and conspiracy thriller. In The Garden of Evil, the last two dovetail when a pickpocket called Aldo Caviglia discovers a lost masterpiece by Caravaggio. It almost goes without saying that in front of the painting he finds a serial killer having his wicked way with a curator from the Louvre. Unsurprisingly, Aldo doesn't make it past page 27. This is only the start of Costa's problems: he watches helplessly as a second maniac shoots and kills his American wife, Emily. Not only is the prime suspect, Count Franco Malaspina, one of the richest members of Roman high society, he is also protected by a cult of sex addicts, called the Ekstasists. Are the two cases connected? Is The Garden of Evil impossible to put down? Well, almost.