A Divine Fury (Cesare Aldo series, 4)
Florence, 1539. Demoted to constable and stuck on perpetual night patrol, Cesare Aldo is in pursuit of a curfew-dodger when he stumbles upon a corpse. Posed like a crucifix, the dead man shows signs of having been ritually killed. Aldo manages to get himself assigned to assist the recently promoted Strocchi to investigate the murder. When the murderer strikes again, evidence points towards the church of San Felice, where the fearsome Father Negri performs exorcisms. But in a city where everyone is keeping secrets, Aldo and Strocchi will have their work cut out to uncover the truth.
This is the fourth Cesare Aldo novel. The author clearly knows his characters well and introduces them effectively so even a newcomer to the series never feels confused about who is who. Florence, too, is vividly evoked, both in its glory and especially in its squalor, with its narrow alleys, teeming piazzas and gloomy churches.
As a gay man living in a brothel but in love with the Jewish doctor who performs (unofficial) post-mortems for him, Aldo is perpetually in danger of his own secrets coming to light, which only adds to the tension, especially as Negri’s exorcisms seem to be a form of conversion therapy.
I did spot the flaw in one of the lines of questioning before the investigators did, but other plot twists took me by surprise. There’s a sprinkling of Italian (including every single swear word in the book), but their meaning is easily deduced from the context. My only niggle is the slightly random use of the pronouns ‘they/them/their’ – fair enough when the identity of a suspect is unknown, but a little odd when referring to someone unequivocally male. Otherwise, this gripping crime novel is bound to appeal to fans of S. J. Parris and her ilk.
