The Darkest Sin

Author D. V. Bishop
Narrator Mark Meadows
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Run Time 14 hours and 20 minutes
Format Audio
Genre European history: Renaissance, Historical crime and mysteries, Historical fiction, Thriller / suspense fiction.

Listen to a sample

What to expect

*Winner of the CWA Historical Dagger 2023*

'A great insight into Renaissance Florence. What I love about these books is the seamless weaving of factual history with a great story' – Abir Mukherjee

Florence. Spring, 1537.

When Cesare Aldo investigates a report of intruders at a convent in the Renaissance city’s northern quarter, he enters a community divided by bitter rivalries and harbouring dark secrets.

His case becomes far more complicated when a man’s body is found deep inside the convent, stabbed more than two dozen times. Unthinkable as it seems, all the evidence suggests one of the nuns must be the killer.

Meanwhile, Constable Carlo Strocchi finds human remains pulled from the Arno that belong to an officer of the law missing since winter. The dead man had many enemies, but who would dare kill an official of the city’s most feared criminal court?

As Aldo and Strocchi close in on the truth, identifying the killers will prove more treacherous than either of them could ever have imagined . . .

The Darkest Sin is an atmospheric locked-room thriller by D. V. Bishop, set in Renaissance Florence and is the sequel to City of Vengeance.

Critics Review

He is fast becoming a serious rival to C. J. Sansom and S. J. Parris with his page-turning novels. Highly recommended

Historical Novel Society

Pretty much everything I want in an historical thriller – an absolutely terrific read, in a series that’s clearly going from strength to strength

Philip Gwynne Jones

A real pleasure. A lavender-scented, sun-drenched convent hidden among the backstreets of Florence is the absorbing setting for Cesare Aldo’s latest investigation. The conflicting ambitions and ideals of its cast of interesting women make this an engrossing mystery

Leonora Nattrass, author of Black Drop

D.V Bishop transports you to an utterly convincing 16th century Florence, where the best and worst of human nature constantly circle each other in this tense mystery

S. G. MacLean

My first encounter with the investigator Cesare Aldo was immersive and rewarding. The author’s knowledge of 16th century Florence – both ecclesiastic and civil – drew me effortlessly into his tale of bloodshed and murder. Thoroughly recommended

A. D. Swanston

Bishop builds the suspense well, masterfully connecting the disparate strands of the story . . . Given the quality of the first two novels about Cesare Aldo, this series could become essential reading for fans of the historical novel

Crime Fiction Lover

Impressive

Literary Review

History, mystery and the eternal mystique of Renaissance Florence in perfect harmony!

Lancashire Evening Post

Praise for City of Vengeance: An impressive and immersive debut set in a beautifully realized sixteenth-century Florence. Investigator Cesare Aldo is a fascinating and charismatic protagonist. Highly recommended

Antonia Hodgson

Praise for City of Vengeance: Richly atmospheric . . . transports you to another time and place

Ambrose Parry, author of The Way of All Flesh,

Praise for City of Vengeance: A first-class historical thriller with echoes of The Name of the Rose. Bishop’s spirited and richly detailed story, layered with issues of humanity that still bedevil society today, is a tour de force

David Baldacci

A beautifully realized Renaissance Florence, the return of the whip-smart protagonist Cesare Aldo, and a brutal murder behind convent walls — delicious!

Alison Belsham

A bloody crime in a convent full of nuns is a splendid concept in itself but add the sights and smells of medieval Florence, a series of flawed and often sinister male characters and a some cracking twists in the narrative and you have a gripping tale

Joanna Hickson

Intriguing and compelling, The Darkest Sin is a vivid and mesmerizing portrayal of 16th century Florence. I loved it

Sue Lawrence

So fluid and fluent, the pages almost turn themselves . . . Aldo is a great creation: resourceful, driven and forced to hide who he really is, but nevertheless is compelled to find justice for those who deserve it

James Oswald, bestselling author of the Inspector McLean series, on City of Vengeance

A cleverly plotted and atmospheric whodunnit in Renaissance Florence

Choice Magazine

User Reviews

Book 5.0

Narration 5.0

5.0

I love these books! Aldo is a complex and fascinating character, not without his faults, but intensely likeable. The mystery was, well, a mystery to me! I'm not a reader who tries to work out who the murderer is, though. But it's safe to say that I didn't this time either - it all made sense in the end though!
I'll be looking forward to learning what's going to happen to Cesare Aldo in the next book.

ClareR 03/10/2023

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