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David Hewson
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Media
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Book
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Publisher | Pan | ||
ISBN | 9780330452588 | ||
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Reviewer
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Selina
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Synopsis
Allan Prime looked ready to die of fright, even before the bright, shining spear with the blood-soaked tip reached his head . . . The death mask of the poet Dante is to be exhibited at the premiere of a controversial new film, Inferno. But at the grand unveiling this priceless artefact is replaced by a macabre death mask of the film's star, Allan Prime. Minutes later the leading actress, Maggie Flavier, is threatened before her attacker is shot. Nic Costa and his team are sidelined from the investigation in Rome and follow the movie to its next showing in San Francisco, hoping to recover the stolen death mask. But in California confusing new clues suggest that there is more behind the killing than a crazed Dante fan. With the authorities distracted by false leads, can Costa protect Maggie, find the truth and stop the killer - all before life imitates art? ‘Hewson writes a page-turner detective story like no other' Choice.
Review
Dante's Numbers is the seventh book in Hewsons series about Italian police officer Nic Costa. This novel is spread between Italy and the USA, as Nic and his fellow officers seek to uncover the person behind a series of brutal attacks and killings that are based on Dante's Inferno, and occur just as the a new movie based on his work is about to be shown.
The introduction and first few chapters give a hint of a gripping story where Nic and his team have to race to stop a crazed murderer before he completes 9 killings based on Dantes' 9 circles of hell, but what starts off to be a promising novel quickly fades. After the initial climax and the move to San Francisco, there are large sections of the book that seem to be there for no reason, even though you know they must eventually be tied into the story somehow. There is a lot of conflict in the beginning between the Italian officers and the Carabinieri, the italian military police, and it looks as though its going to be a fraught 'who can solve the case first' storyline, but their role too seems to disappear as the story progresses.
The rest of the characters in Costas' 'team' also seem to have fading roles as the book goes on, and the story then focuses on Costas relationship with actress Maggie Flavier for a while, before it then all draws together in the last few chapters, when, as a reader, you are almost starting to forget what happened in the first place. The ending is also very obscure, and seems not to have a great deal to do with anything that went on before it.
Overall i found this book quite tiresome to read, though Hewson has obviously developed good characters over the course of the series, so the other books may well be different.
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