Overview
On a warm, golden evening in Rome, celebrities and paparazzi gather at the Villa Borghese as a legendary director premieres his long-anticipated film version of Dante’s Inferno. But minutes later the scene is chaos: A man lies dead, the film’s star is missing, and a priceless relic has vanished.As the premiere shifts locations—from Rome to San Francisco—detective Nic Costa finds himself on U.S. shores for the first time, charged with protecting a trove of rare Italian artworks and artifacts, as well as an American film actress, Maggie Flavier. When a killer indeed strikes, and with Flavier in danger, Costa races to unravel the chilling clues that connect Dante’s nine circles of Hell to the shattering revelations of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. But he may be too late. For a cunning plot is closing in around Costa, guided by a poet’s ancient vision of sin and punishment and a killer’s genius for terror.
Previously published as Dante's Numbers.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Hewson's fine seventh crime novel to feature Nic Costa (after The Garden of Evil) takes the Italian police detective to San Francisco, where aging, ailing director Roberto Tonti is preparing for the premiere of his first major film in 20 years, Inferno. Based on Dante's Divine Comedy, the $150-million blockbuster, which was filmed in Tonti's native Italy, is to be the capstone of the director's career. In San Francisco, the Questura (Costa's outfit) and the carabinieri-the former charged with security for Dante artifacts in a tie-in exhibit, the latter with security for the actors-pursue separate, often conflicting agendas after a series of bizarre incidents, including a priceless artifact's theft, a movie star's kidnapping and an attack on another star that results in death. The SFPD also gets into the act as more murders plague the film's debut. A convoluted plot, eccentric characters and numerous sinister connections to Hitchcock's Vertigo all contribute to the suspense. (Mar.)
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