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A Season for the Dead: Nic Costa, Book 1

Nic Costa, Book 1

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A Season for the Dead: Nic Costa, Book 1

By: David Hewson
Narrated by: Sean Baker
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In a hushed Vatican reading room, the scene was shocking: a crazed professor shot dead after brandishing evidence of a grisly crime. Moments later, two bodies are found in a nearby church, each with a gruesome calling card from the killer.

As the August heat takes Rome in its fiery grip, the news of the two brutal murders holds the city in thrall. And as the media gathers and Vatican officials close ranks, a young detective is sent to the forefront of the case. Nic Costa is the son of an infamous Italian Communist, a connoisseur of Caravaggio, and a cop who barely looks his twenty-seven years of age. Thrust into the heart of a killing spree that will rattle his city down to its ancient bones, Nic meets a woman who will soon dominate both his consciousness and his investigation.

A cool, beautiful professor of early Christianity, Sara Farnese was in the Vatican library on that fateful day, a witness to her colleague's strange outburst and death. But her role will become even more puzzling as more bodies are found: Each victim killed in a gory tableau of Christian martyrdom. And each victim had intimately known Sara, whose silence Costa cannot quite crack and whose carnal history becomes more lurid and unfathomable with every revelation.

Soon, a nightmarish chase is implicating politicians and priests - while at the heart of the matter remains the woman Costa is both investigating and guarding. Wanting to believe in Sara's innocence, Nic still cannot turn his eyes from the truths he is uncovering. Even as the secrets of a woman, a killer and a city begin to unravel... with devastating consequences. Crime Thrillers Mystery Police Procedural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Crime Fiction Rome Thriller Scary Italy
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I enjoyed the characterisations and the setting. I found the description of the murders overly vivid and blood thirsty. It made me feel unsettled. The twist at the end was interesting. Overall the book made me feel sad.

Confusing and a bit over blood thirsty

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Why would a narrator attach American and various regional UK accents to Italian people? So strange. There are actual Irish and American characters who received their appropriate accents, and the narrator is good at them, but it made it very difficult to follow when Italians also spoke with American and variations of English accents.
The story is fine, just what you expect from David Hewson, but could we please have the audio done over by Saul Reichlin?

Weird narration

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I found this strange, Italian characters with cockney accents then there were American and Irish accents but not one Italian! Plus the story kept rambling on sometimes losing me and was pretty gruesome. Tried to get to the end but gave up.

Seemed to go on and on

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I gave up on this book half way through. Life is too short. The plot is strange and there are weird inconsistencies - at least in the first half.
HOWEVER the worst thing about this book is the narrator. IMHO, right at the very bottom of my personal rankings of the nearly 600 audiobooks I have listened to. What was with the lapses in north England accents for some of the Italian characters? I think I also detected a Scottish accent that came and went. Hard to tell. The main female character sounded just awful in this man's voice - simpering, dim and quite unlikeable instead of the mysterious person I think the author intended her to be. And the bad guy ..... histrionic overacting of the worst kind. I'm not sure I will read another Hewson even though the excellent Saul Reichlin is the narrator on many.

The worst narrator and a muddling story line

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