The Garden of Angels
by David Hewson

At his beloved Nonno Paolo’s deathbed, fifteen-year-old Nico receives a gift that will change his life forever: a yellowing manuscript which tells the haunting, twisty tale of what really happened to his grandfather in Nazi-occupied Venice in 1943.

A Times Best Thriller Book of 2022

The Palazzo Colombina is home to the Uccello family: three generations of men, trapped together in the dusty palace on Venice’s Grand Canal. Awkward fifteen-year-old Nico. His distant, business-focused father. And his beloved grandfather, Paolo. Paolo is dying. But before he passes, he has secrets he’s waited his whole life to share.

When a Jewish classmate is attacked by bullies, Nico just watches – earning him a week’s suspension and a typed, yellowing manuscript from his frail Nonno Paolo. A history lesson, his grandfather says. A secret he must keep from his father. A tale of blood and madness . . .

Nico is transported back to the Venice of 1943, an occupied city seething under its Nazi overlords, and to the defining moment of his grandfather’s life: when Paolo’s support for a murdered Jewish woman brings him into the sights of the city’s underground resistance. Hooked and unsettled, Nico can’t stop reading – but he soon wonders if he ever knew his beloved grandfather at all.

Reviews

Hewson expertly balances tense action and thoughtful emotion. Fans of character-driven WWII thrillers will want to check this out

Publishers Weekly

Hewson displays the gifts that distinguish the Costa series: the ability to bring texture and humanity to multiple characters and to explore significant moments in history through the microcosm of those characters' lives

Booklist

THE GARDEN OF ANGELS is a unique achievement: a thriller that is a pageturner, yet is also evocative and haunting. Hewson writes with both power and grace and is a true master of his craft. This is a book that stays with you long after you have finished reading

Craig Russell, international bestselling author

Many of Hewson’s books have been set in Italy, but this one-off set mostly in German WW2-occupied Venice must surely rank amongst his best ... With a gallery of wonderful characters on both sides of the fence and never flinching from the atrocities committed by all parties, this is a gripping and wonderfully written tale of pathos and heroism with a wonderful final twist that raises the book to a whole other level

Maxim Jakubowski, Crime Time

Full of layers, like a Russian nesting doll … A good read for those who love their World War II thrillers with a bit of history included. Followers of Donna Leon’s “Commissario Brunetti” mysteries may appreciate the atmosphere and the intrigue

Library Journal

Readers will be gripped and hold fast until the shocking end

Publishers Weekly on Devil’s Fjord

Readers of Donna Leon and Michael Dibdin will find this gripping

Library Journal on The Flood

Hewson spins an engrossing tale

Booklist on The Flood

Hewson’s own elegant prose style perfectly captures the mood of the story ... A splendid book

Booklist Starred Review of The Killing

David Hewson

David Hewson is a former journalist with The Times, Sunday Times and the Independent. He is the author of more than thirty novels, including his Rome-based Nic Costa series which has been published in fifteen languages, his Amsterdam-based series featuring detective Pieter Vos and the brand-new Venetian mystery series. He has also written three acclaimed adaptations of the Danish TV series, The Killing. He lives near Canterbury in Kent.@david_hewson | davidhewson.com

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Editions

The Garden of Angels by David Hewson is available in the following formats

Hardback97807278501196th April 2021148 X 225mm320$29.99
Hardback978072785011929th January 2021148 X 225mm320£20.99
Ebook97814483047381st March 2021N/A320$14.99
Ebook97814483047381st March 2021N/A320£12.99
Hardback - Large Print978178029195626th October 2021145 X 225mm480$36.95
Hardback - Large Print978178029195626th August 2021145 X 225mm480£23.99
Paperback978178029756927th September 2021140 X 215mm320$17.95
Paperback978178029756929th July 2021140 X 215mm320£12.99
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