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Pan Macmillan has bagged two more books in the Cesare Aldo historical crime fiction series by D V Bishop.
Alex Saunders, senior commissioning editor, acquired world rights from Jenny Brown of Jenny Brown Associates. The first in the new deal is Ritual of Fire, publishing in hardback June 2023 and continuing the story on from City of Vengeance and The Darkest Sin.
The synopsis reads: “Florence. Summer, 1538. A night patrol finds a rich merchant hanged and set ablaze in the city’s main piazza. More than mere murder, this killing is intended to put the fear of God into the city. Forty years earlier on this date, puritanical monk Girolamo Savonarola was executed the same way in the same place. Does this new killing mean Savonarola’s vengeful spirit has risen again?
“Cesare Aldo has his suspicions but is hunting thieves in the Tuscan countryside, leaving Constable Carlo Strocchi to investigate the ritual killing. When another important merchant is slain even more publicly than the first, those rich enough to escape the summer heat flee to their country estates. But the Tuscan hills can also be dangerous places. Unless Aldo and Strocchi can work together to stop a deadly killer, Florence could become a bonfire of the vanities once more…”
Saunders commented: “I’m so pleased to have signed up another two Cesare Aldo novels for the Macmillan crime list from the immensely talented D V Bishop. This is a series yhat is going from strength to strength and Ritual of Fire is a sensational third instalment that cements David as one of the most exciting new talents in historical crime fiction. Readers who love impeccably researched historical fiction paired with intelligently plotted and dramatic storylines are in for a real treat.”
Bishop added: “Pan Macmillan is the perfect publisher for my historical thrillers, and readers have really taken Cesare Aldo into their hearts. I can’t wait for everyone to read Ritual of Fire next year. The new novel sees Aldo investigating gruesome murders in Renaissance Florence and the Tuscan countryside during a heatwave and rising religious fanaticism. Forty years after the notorious Bonfire of the Vanities, powerful men are being burned alive – can Aldo find the killer before all of Florence succumbs to this madness?”
Brown said: “Cesare Aldo sprang into the world of historical thrillers as a vivid, intriguing and fully-fledged character against the backdrop of Renaissance Florence. I’m delighted that the brilliant partnership between D V Bishop and editor Alex Saunders at Pan Macmillan, which began with City of Vengeance and The Darkest Sin, is continuing with Ritual by Fire, a scorcher of a novel.”