THE BORGIA PORTRAIT

A curious British curator uncovers fabulous treasures and murderous secrets in Venice.

Retired archivist Arnold Clover, who moved to Venice a year ago after the death of his wife, can’t resist an offer to examine the abandoned palazzo Ca’ Scacchi, situated on the Grand Canal. Lizzie Hawker, who wants to unburden herself of this gothic headache before she turns 40, inherited the palazzo from her mother, Lucia, a beautiful contessa who mysteriously vanished when Lizzie was 5. Her father, Charles, aka “Chas,” was a careless, and probably criminal, music mogul from London’s East End. The existence of a crypt in the palazzo is a small surprise dwarfed by the discovery of a body inside. Could this be the missing contessa? Establishing the identity of the corpse is the first challenge for Clover and Lizzie. The second is locating the legendary painting of the title, which went missing at the same time Lucia did. Gothic trappings abound as the duo pore over buried documents and search historic buildings for clues to the married life and death of Lucia. All the while, unctuous villain Enzo Canale, who has designs on the property himself, is breathing down their necks with his own tawdry tales about Chas and Lucia. Along with creepy anecdotes, Hewson packs his novel with historic references going all the way back to a 14th-century rebellion, with nods to Byron, Casanova, and Primo Levi.

An atmospheric thriller studded with lurid tales of Venice.