Since I won’t even be home from vacation until tomorrow, I certainly haven’t had time to put together the November Treasures in My Closet post. Expect that next Saturday, October 8. I’ll work on it this week. In the meantime, David Hewson introduces a new series Venetian mystery series with The Medici Murders. Tuesday, Oct. 4 is release day.

After the unexpected death of his wife, Eleanor, just three days before their joint retirement, archivist Arnold Clover retired to Venice, Italy, to the small apartment where the couple planned to enjoy their years together. Thanks to a friend in England, who gave Arnold free reader tickets to libraries and archives, he’s made a few friends, including Luca Volpetti, a senior archivist. Together, the two get caught up in a research project involving Venice’s violent past.

In 1548, Lorenzino de Medici was assassinated by two hired killers. Marmaduke Godolphin, a British TV historian, is eager to tell the story of Medici’s murder, so he’s gathered his acolytes from forty years ago so he can surprise them with his theory. But, Godolphin is stabbed by a stiletto on the exact spot where Medici was murdered, and his body is found in the canal.

Capitano Valentina Fabbri of the Caribinieri recruits Arnold Clover as her storyteller. She wants the matter of Godolphin’s death resolved that evening, and she has arrested all the members of his so-called Gilded Circle. Forty years earlier, Godolphin was a history professor at Cambridge. There were scandals about sex and favors associated with the four students who made up his Gilded Circle, scandals that Clover as an observing student was vaguely aware of. Godolphin married one; two became authors and professors, while the fourth became his editor. He became a major media star for the BBC, with abbreviated retellings of history. He brought all of them, along with his son and a young woman connected with TV in the United States, to Venice for his great revealing. But, Arnold and Luca have something to reveal from their research as well.

As narrator, and Fabbri’s storyteller, Arnold Clover has much to reveal to her, and to the reader. As interesting as some of the story is, people who appreciate Venetian history will be the greatest audience because so many others may bog down in the details. And, Capitano Valentina Fabbri sums up the entire book. “This is not an investigation, it appears. More a character study of a group of intriguing foreigners.” If readers are looking for a history lesson about Venice, and a character study, The Medici Murders might work.

David Hewson’s website is https://davidhewson.com/

The Medici Murders by David Hewson. Severn House, 2022. ISBN 9781448306565 (hardcover), 288p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley for a review.