I think so far this is my least favourite of the Nic Costa series. I have read 4 of them. I would suggest that this could be a case of an author starting well and then fading with a hero that they should have stopped writing about, but I have read Books 1-3 (this is book 3) and book 5 (I read them out of order) and book 5 was actually my favourite, so perhaps this is not the case. I found I did not really engage with this story. I don;t know if it was the use of American secret services in this one which took it away from the battles between the different Rome departments or if it was just the story of this particular bunch of characters I did not engage with. Costa was not one of the main parts of this book - his partner Gianii Peroni was, which wasn't a bad thing as you really got to know this character and his girlfriend, Teresa Lupo more, but it was the wooden characters around them that failed to build the plot of this story which meant at the end, apart from wanting Costa, Peroni and Falcone to come out OK I really couldn't have cared less what happened to the other characters in the book.Normally Hewson manages to write so that you end up feeling some sympathy for the criminals in the book. Her certainly managed that in book 5, but in this one I just wanted to shake every single American character and tell them to get a grip - or maybe that was the point? There was just too much 'romance' and 'nostalgia' centred around missions in to Iraq prior to the first Gulf War and beyond. or maybe perhaps it is my own perceptions of these events, the Gulf War and what happened in Iraq and later Afghanistan which taints the story in this book somewhat. Sadly, authors cannot predict how the future will change their books when they are grounded in real events and unfortunately I think that is what has happened here.I would still like to read more of Hewson's books as I am hopeful this is just a one off book in the series where I just did not engage with the story.
The Sacred Cut by David Hewson was published in 2005, but I just found it. The setting is Rome and it is snowing like it has not snowed for twenty years. Nic Costa and Gianni are plainclothes policemen working five days before Christmas with a photographer when suddenly the photographer is shot and dies in front of the Pantheon. When they see a figure running out, they go inside and find a naked woman lying on geometric slabs, legs and arms akimbo, her skin waxy. Her limbs were outstretched like Leonardo's sketch of The Vitruvian Man. Within hours, they discover the corpse was an American and U. S. agents descend with a shocking story to tell: the killer had struck before, in monuments all over the world, leaving the same cryptic message. One agent, Emily Deacon, relates a stunning act of deception that may lead to the U. S. Government and her connection to the killer. The first murder leads to more grisly slayings and Roman police joust with Americans to solve the cases. The reader is taken into the mind of a madman, who has multiple personalities, and into a conspiracy that still engenders outrage years after the war.The sacred cut is found in the layout of many ancient buildings, including the Parthenon and is produced by drawing a square, using a compass with an amount equal to half a diagonal, cutting through the center at a corner of the square, and repeating for the other three corners. Through the eight points of intersection of the arcs and the sides of the square, draw four verticals and four horizontals. The center square formed by this construction is called the sacred cut square. Imagine drawing this design on the back of a body! It took the killer many tries before he perfected the design found on the woman in the Parthenon.The book is similar to the De Vinci Code that was written three years before, but this does not dull this exceptional novel about Rome and its people.
What do You think about The Sacred Cut (2006)?
In David Hewson's The Sacred Cut, the third installment in the Nic Costa series, it was winter in Rome, when Nic Costa discovered another shocking mystery. A woman's body was laid down on the marble floor of the Pantheon's great dome with a carving on her back. His only witness disappeared into the night, when he discovered the victim was an American woman. That's when U.S. agents descended on the scene and told Nic and the others, the killer had struck before. One of the agents was named Emily Deacon, who later before the love of his life, who had her own personal connection to the killer. And now they would both on the search for the truth to the shocking conspiracy behind it.
—Kristen
If you have read Hewson's work before, then I definitely can recommend this installment (3rd in the Nic Costa series); if you like a well-written mystery that doesn't insult your intelligence, then I can recommend it to you and if you enjoy a good conspiracy yarn & a view of Italy, then you will like this one. If you want a cute little cozy yarn, skip it. I think Hewson writes mysteries the way they should be written, although I must say I had most of it figured out early on. Normally I hate that, but in this case, it's okay...it was the getting there that was really the fun part.brief lookThe Pantheon, built by Hadrian in antiquity is the scene to which Nic Costa & his partner Gianni Peroni are called to investigate a murder. The most major snowfall in years is falling in the background, and the body has been covered by it. The dead woman has been positioned on the floor, and in her back is carved something that looks like Da Vinci's famous Vitruvian Man (you know, the one with the man in the square in the circle). But wait...before you start screaming oh god, another DVC ripoff, don't. The investigation that follows leads our friends to become (unhappily) involved with the FBI, who are playing their cards very closely and not revealing more than they need the police to know. As Costa, Peroni, Falcone and Crazy Teresa get more involved, they realize that there's more here than meets the eye -- and find a mystery/conspiracy that it may not be healthy for them to become involved in.Very well done; I couldn't stop reading once I started it. read: 1/31/2006
—Nancy Oakes
Nic Costa -dekkareiden kolmososa näyttää Roomasta vaihteeksi talvisemman puolen. Luminen maisema tuo tarinaan mukavaa kontrastia, mutta itse juoni jää aiempia Hewsonin jännäreitä ohuemmaksi.Poliisikaksikko Nic Costa ja Gianni Peroni löytävät Pantheonista ruumiin - ja tulevat samalla melkein ammutuiksi. Iskevä alku kirjalle, mutta sen jälkeen eksytään patologisen osaston käytäville ja poliisihierarkioihin sen verran pitkästyttävästi, että veto pääsee hiipumaan.Kaiken kaikkiaan hyvin amerikkalainen Italia-dekkari. Superlatiiveja riittää eikä uskottavuus ole joka käänteessä tärkein kriteeri.
—Jemina
