<blockquote>The unseen girl was screaming again, at the top of her voice. There was real agony and fear in her cries, not the drunkenness and violence he'd come to recognise over the years. He could see his concern reflected in Agata's shocked features... Costa ran across the riverside road and down towards the tortuous web of lanes and alleys that meandered in every direction out from the ghetto like a tangle of veins an arteries wound around the human heart...</blockquote>
<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-6616" title="The Fallen Angel" src="http://vir.liquidweb.com/~davidhe4/davidhewson.com//wp-content/uploads/2011/01/fallen-angel-uk-small1.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="362" />When British academic Malise Gabriel falls to his death from a Rome apartment, detective Nic Costa rapidly comes to realise that there is much more to the accident than he first thought. It also becomes apparent that Malise's family -- mysterious and tragic daughter Mina, stoic wife Cecilia and troubled son Robert -- may be keeping vital information hidden.

Nic becomes obsessed with the case, intrigued by Mina's story which seems to be linked to the sixteenth-century real-life tragedy of a young Italian noblewoman, Beatrice Cenci.

As the investigation deepens, Rome's dark and seedy side is uncovered, revealing a tangle of deceit, treachery and corruption. Costa realises that the key to the truth lies with the Gabriels. Why are they so unwilling to co-operate, and who, or what, is the reason for their silence?

The ninth novel in the Costa series is available from Macmillan in the UK and Delacorte in the US.
<blockquote>Intricately plotted and gorgeously written, THE FALLEN ANGEL weaves a spell that will entrap you until the final page. David Hewson's Rome is dark and tantalizing, seductive and dangerous, a place where present-day crimes ring with the echoes of history.

<strong>Tess Gerritsen</strong>, author of THE KILLING PLACE

Hewson is one of our finest crime writers.  Absorbing, intelligent, and with a staggeringly vivid sense of place.  No author has ever brought Rome so alive for me -- nor made it seem so sinister.

<strong>Peter James</strong>, author of the bestselling Roy Grace series</blockquote>
<strong>Reviews</strong>

<em>Bookreporter</em>

I am probably preaching to the choir here, but I cannot imagine anyone picking up a book authored by David Hewson and not falling in love with the subject matter within the first 50 pages or so. Hewson has made a profession of doing the amazing and making it look commonplace in novel after novel. THE FALLEN ANGEL, his latest and arguably best work, continues the practice while upping his own ante by a notch or three.

It is Hewson’s practice to take an ensemble cast — headed in interest, if not by rank, by Rome police detective Nic Costa — and place them against the backdrop of one of the world’s oldest cities as they solve one or more baffling murders. William Faulkner wrote: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Hewson’s novels bring these famous words to life, and perhaps nowhere more so than in THE FALLEN ANGEL.

...even if you somehow put together at least part of what is ultimately revealed here, it is doubtful that you will figure out all of it, as Hewson drops revelations and bombshells — including a major one — right up through the final few pages. As tantalizing as the mystery is, however, the primary <em>raison d’etre</em> is Hewson’s unparalleled description of the ins and outs of Rome, as he guides you through the hidden nooks and crannies of the city through the eyes of his various and assorted characters.

At some point, Hewson should publish a travel guide to Rome and its surrounding environs (title it “Costa’s <em>Roma</em>“) as a source book to the magnificent scenery he has presented in THE FALLEN ANGEL and its predecessors. In the meantime, though, Hewson’s body of work provides a tempting map not only to an intriguing city but also to the darkest recesses of the human mind, past and present.

<em>Associated Press</em>

<!-- p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px 'Times New Roman'} -->Hewson has a gift for weaving complex mysteries and thrills into a tight and captivating tale. Just as Michael Connelly reveals the dark underbelly of Los Angeles, Hewson immerses the reader into the city of Rome and shows a side that tourists don't often see

<em>Publishers Weekly starred review (third in series)</em>

Near the start of Hewson's accomplished ninth novel featuring Roman detective Nic Costa... an eccentric English scholar, Malise Gabriel, falls to his death from a balcony, and Nic finds the man's lovely 17-year-old daughter, Mina, kneeling over his body on the street. The neighborhoods of Rome offer satisfying texture, as does Roman history—in particular, the dramatic story of another daughter, Beatrice Cenci, who was executed centuries earlier for killing the father who molested her... once secrets begin to be revealed, especially about the Gabriel family, there's no stopping them. Readers will have a lot of fun peeling away the book's many layers, right down to the final, closing twist.

<em>The Times</em>

Hewson presents an atmospheric portrait of a dark, corrupt Rome behind the jolly tourist façade, astutely mixing the historical and the present. This is the ninth in the Nic Costa series, and possibly the best.

<em>New York Times</em>

Mr. Hewson’s crime novel, the ninth in a series, is like a satisfying “Law &amp; Order” episode set in modern-day Rome... the ending is the rich tiramisu we’ve waited for.<em>
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<em>Daily Express</em>

This latest novel in David Hewson’s Italian-set crime sequence is as vivid and engaging as ever. His Roman copper, the unshakeable Nic Costa, is the perfect guide to one of the most atmospherically rendered cities in current crime fiction. Reading <em>The Fallen Angel</em> might have you planning your own trip to Rome.

A variety of British and American novelists have set their books in Italy, notably Donna Leon and the late Michael Dibdin, whose Zen books have recently enjoyed TV adaptations. Hewson is ahead of the pack in this country-hopping band, mainly because his ambitions clearly stretch beyond the parameters of standard crime fiction.

<em>Cleveland Plain Dealer</em>

David Hewson ends nearly every chapter in a cliffhanger, and his writing is good enough to glow in the dark. His characters are fresh and vivid, his story deftly constructed, and his portrait of modern Rome dazzles. <strong>Grade A</strong>

<strong>Photos</strong>

Browse David's gallery of research photos of Roman locations for <em>The Fallen Angel</em>, from the Cenci church in the ghetto to the Italian State Police Black Museum. And read more about <a href="http://davidhewson.com/2011/02/beatrice-cenci-the-true-story-tragedy-behind-the-fallen-angel/">the background to the true story of Beatrice Cenci.</a>

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