City of Masks
This is the third novel in Sykes’ Somershill Manor series, but can be read as a standalone. Set in 1358 Venice, as Oswald de Lacy is waiting for a pilgrim ship to the Holy Land, it opens well with the discovery of a dead body by the canal flowing past the house in which Oswald is lodging with his mother. Fleeing the events of his past, Oswald is reluctantly forced to investigate by the owner of the house. This brings him up against the Signori de Notte—Venice’s secret police—while taking him into the many secret worlds of Venice, where everyone watches everyone else and no one is who they seem. This leads to various false starts by Oswald in his investigation, and the death toll rises to three young men, but he eventually uncovers the murderer.
Sykes has obviously done her research, and there are evocative descriptions of Venice of the period, as well as, in flashback, resonant depictions of past events in England, explaining Oswald’s depression. One thing I did find irritating was the reference to narrow streets as ‘thin’, but this did not spoil my enjoyment of the story, and I will be reading the previous books in the series.
