The villa of mysteries

by David Hewson

In a thriller of astounding menace and power, the acclaimed author of A Season for the Dead returns to the landscape he has made his own--the seething landscape of modern-day Rome--where ancient crimes lie hidden beneath colorful, bustling avenues. Here a teenage girl has disappeared, a detective is exploring a 2000-year-old ritual--and an astonishing mystery is about to unravel in a city of secrets and rage....The Villa of MysteriesIn Rome's crowded Campo dei Fiori, a woman rushes up to two carabinieri lounging in their sunglasses and uniforms, insisting that her sixteen-year-old daughter has just been abducted. Detective Nic Costa sees the scene unfold and intervenes. Because Costa knows what the two officers don't: that in the morgue at Rome's police headquarters, a forensic pathologist is examining the strange, mummified corpse of another girl, whose disappearance and death bear haunting similarities....Police pathologist Teresa Lupo is Nic's colleague, friend, and his only equal w