Ritual of Fire (Cesar Aldo Book 3) by D.V Bishop

Book Blurb

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 Florence. 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?

Or are his fanatical disciples plotting to revive the monk’s regime of holy terror? Cesare Aldo has his suspicions but is hunting thieves and fugitives 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 are fleeing to their country estates. But the Tuscan hills can also be dangerous places.

Soon growing religious fervor combines with a scorching heatwave to drive the city ever closer to madness, while someone is stalking powerful men that forged lifelong alliances during the dark days of Savonarola and his brutal followers. Unless Aldo and Strocchi can work together to stop the killer, Florence could become a bonfire of the vanities once more. . . .

My Review

Ritual of Fire is the third book in the fabulous Cesar Aldo series. This book picks up the story just after the previous book with Aldo now dealing with crime in the countryside just outside Florence as an officer of the court. His once friend and contemporary Strocchi staying in Florence with his wife and baby daughter. Whilst Aldo is arresting known thief Lippo, in the city a body is burned in the Piazza della Signoria, and proclimations claim that Savonarola is back in the city although he was killed over forty years ago. As the heat rises. both in temperature, the fire killing of victims, suspense and in pressure to solve the crime quickly, Strocchi and Aldo need to work together and put their differences aside.

Ritual of Fire put me back in my favourite city of Florence, in my favourite period and back with intriguing Cesar Aldo. After respecting Strocchi’s wishes he has taken himself away from the hub of Florence into the more relaxed life in the countryside. I love that Aldo is a man of his word, taking himself away so Strocchi so they don’t have to work together after their disagreement, even though it is detremental to his career. Aldo is still living the simple life, no posessions, no luxuries just a hut with a bed at the edge of a village and no real trouble until his arrest of thief Lippo starts a chain of events that take him back to Florence and to the same case as Strocchi. Strocchi is promoted and in charge of the investigation into the body burned in the Piazza del Signoria and the proclomations posted that Savonarola is back. He is feeling the pressure from those above him and beginning to miss his mentor Aldo. As well as Aldo and Strocchi, their boss Bindi and Aldo’s nemesis the ruthless and arrogant silk merchant Ruggerio all make a return.

I think Ritual of Fire is my favourite book so far in this fabulous series. The writing and storytelling is masterful, really bringing sixteenth century Florence to life. I loved that he brought Savonorla into this book, a monk who forty years ago held Florence in his hand, who advocated the destruction of posessions, art and literature in order to lead a more religious life. The fervour this causes adds to the suspense and almost gives the murders legitimacy if they are in the name of Savonarola. D.V Bishop captures the atmosphere of this fervour brilliantly, and his descriptions of the of the murders, the smell that invokes is very realistic. The tension builds with speed, with the Otto, the criminal court, under pressure from Cosmo de Medici, and keeps it’s hold as the plot twists and turns.

D.V Bishop’s Aldo Cesare series just gets better and better, and Ritual of Fire is in my opinion the best book so far. His writing is evocative of sixteenth century Florence, capturing the beauty af the city and the countryside surrounding it, the cultural and social norms of the period and the sights and smells. The suspense builds and there is an undercurrent of menace that underpinns the plot with it’s grisly murders and religious fervour. This is another outstanding read from D.V Bishop, with the perfect mix of fact and fiction, fabulous characters and a a dark and sinister plot line; historical fiction at its best. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

I’d like to thank Philippa McEwan and Pan Macmillan for my copy of this book in return for my honest review.