Shadow of Madness
Cesare Aldo is back – and this time it’s personal. In a quest to find out more about his background, he sets out in December 1540 to the Ospedale de’ Pazzi, an institution in the hills outside Florence, where a combination of monks, guards and nuns care for a small group of patients/prisoners deemed too insane to live in the outside world. Travelling with him is his partner – in life and love, as well as in his criminal investigations – the Jewish doctor Saul Orvieto, who is concerned about Aldo’s state of mind after months of following false leads. But when blizzards cut off the Ospedale from the outside world and their driver is found dead in ambiguous circumstances, it’s only the beginning of their troubles as a murderer starts to stalk the isolated community where everyone seems to be nursing a dark secret.
This is a classic closed circle mystery, where the culprit can only be one of a small number of suspects. As with all of Bishop’s books, there is enough information to allow the book to be read as a standalone, but since it is closely intertwined with two of his five previous novels, it might be advisable for new readers to start with the earlier books.
But the claustrophobic, gothic atmosphere of the draughty Ospedale is well evoked; even the minor characters are complex and nuanced (though I did have to flick back occasionally to remind myself what afflicts which mental patient) and the inexorable unravelling of the plot is masterful. I’m only sorry that my proof copy doesn’t contain the maps of the interior of the building that are evidently going to be in the published version, which might have helped me follow the action more precisely. Highly recommended.
