The Darkest Sin

An atmospheric locked-room historical thriller set against the backdrop of the Medici dynasty in 1530s Renaissance Florence and the sequel to City of Vengeance.

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*Winner of the CWA Historical Dagger 2023*

'Pretty much everything I want in an historical thriller - an absolutely terrific read' – Philip Gwynne Jones

'A great insight into Renaissance Florence. What I love about these books is the seamless weaving of factual history with a great story' – Abir Mukherjee

Florence. Spring, 1537.

When Cesare Aldo investigates a report of intruders at a convent in the Renaissance city’s northern quarter, he enters a community divided by bitter rivalries and harbouring dark secrets.

His case becomes far more complicated when a man’s body is found deep inside the convent, stabbed more than two dozen times. Unthinkable as it seems, all the evidence suggests one of the nuns must be the killer.

Meanwhile, Constable Carlo Strocchi finds human remains pulled from the Arno that belong to an officer of the law missing since winter. The dead man had many enemies, but who would dare kill an official of the city’s most feared criminal court?

As Aldo and Strocchi close in on the truth, identifying the killers will prove more treacherous than either of them could ever have imagined . . .

The Darkest Sin is an atmospheric locked-room thriller by D. V. Bishop, set in Renaissance Florence and is the sequel to City of Vengeance.