The Borgia Portrait

A noble family, a legendary painting, a cursed palazzo. When Arnold Clover is recruited by Lizzie Hawker to help her look into her family inheritance, he cannot begin to guess the journey he is about to embark on. Lizzie's mother, an Italian countess, disappeared thirty years ago, presumed dead. Her father has just died and now the family home, a leaning palazzo in Dorsoduro that is full of secrets, has fallen to Lizzie. When her mother vanished so too did a priceless painting of Lucrezia Borgia - but it quickly becomes apparent that Lizzie and Arnold are not the only ones interested in finding it. The search for the lost Lucrezia quickly becomes a race through the secret history of Venice, one with potentially deadly consequences.

David Hewson is a former journalist with The Times, Sunday Times and the Independent. He is the author of more than thirty novels, including his Rome-based Nic Costa series which has been published in fifteen languages, his Amsterdam-based series featuring detective Pieter Vos and the brand-new Venetian mystery series. He has also written three acclaimed adaptations of the Danish TV series, The Killing. He lives near Canterbury in Kent. @david_hewson | davidhewson.com