Night Owl Book Club - Cesare Aldo
Join us for our next Night Owl book club event on Monday, 17th July, at 8pm at The Crown & Kitchen, East Linton. We'll be journeying to Renaissance Florence with author D. V. Bishop, who'll be joining us to talk about his Cesare Aldo series of historical crime thrillers while we enjoy a Negroni cocktail!
Tickets include admittance to the event, a copy of the book of your choice, plus a Negroni cocktail (invented in Florence!) to enjoy on arrival (or please let us know if you would prefer a non-alcoholic mocktail).
If you're new to the Cesare Aldo series, you can select a ticket including City of Vengeance, the first title in the series, or if you're attending as a couple why not choose book two, The Darkest Sin, for your second ticket? Keen Cesare Aldo fans can opt for Ritual of Fire, which has just been released this month!
The event will include a discussion and Q&A with D. V. Bishop, followed by a book signing. Additional copies will be available to purchase on the night.
Please select 'local collection' at the checkout if you would like to pick up your copy from Night Owl - we'll send you a notification when it's ready to collect. Alternatively, if you already have a copy of the books you can select a 'Cocktail only' ticket option.
This event is open to attendees aged 18+ only.
About the Cesare Aldo series:
City of Vengeance
Florence. Winter, 1536. A prominent Jewish moneylender is murdered in his home, a death with wide implications in a city powered by immense wealth.
Cesare Aldo, a former soldier and now an officer of the Renaissance city’s most feared criminal court, is given four days to solve the murder: catch the killer before the feast of Epiphany – or suffer the consequences.
During his investigations Aldo uncovers a plot to overthrow the volatile ruler of Florence, Alessandro de’ Medici. If the Duke falls, it will endanger the whole city. But a rival officer of the court is determined to expose details about Aldo’s private life that could lead to his ruin. Can Aldo stop the conspiracy before anyone else dies, or will his own secrets destroy him first?
Darkest Sin
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.
When a man’s body is found deep inside the convent, stabbed more than two dozen times, the case becomes even more complicated. 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 River 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 . . .
Ritual of Fire
Florence. Summer, 1538. A night patrol finds a wealthy merchant hanged and set ablaze in the city’s main square. More than mere murder, this killing is intended to put the fear of God into Florence. Forty years earlier, puritanical monk Girolamo Savonarola was executed the same way. Does this new killing mean his fanatical disciples are reviving the monk’s regime of holy terror?
Cesare Aldo is busy hunting thieves in the Tuscan countryside, leaving Constable Carlo Strocchi to investigate the killing. When another merchant is burned alive in public, the rich start fleeing to their country estates. But the Tuscan hills can also be dangerous.
Growing religious fervour and a scorching heatwave drives the city ever closer to madness. Meanwhile, someone is stalking those powerful men who forged lifelong bonds in the dark days of Savonarola.
Unless Aldo and Strocchi work together, all of Florence will be consumed by an inferno of death and destruction.
About D. V. Bishop:
D. V. Bishop is the author of the Cesare Aldo mysteries set in Renaissance Florence, published by Pan Macmillan. An award-winning screenwriter and TV dramatist, his love for the city of Florence and the Renaissance period meant there could only be one setting for his crime-fiction debut.
He was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship by the Scottish Book Trust in 2017 while writing the first Cesare Aldo novel, City of Vengeance. Bishop won the Pitch Perfect competition at the 2018 Bloody Scotland international crime fiction festival.
He was shortlisted for the 2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, won the 2022 NZ Booklovers Award for Best Adult Novel and is shortlisted for the 2023 CWA Historical Dagger. His novels have also been longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger, and the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.
FAQs
- I already have all of the Cesare Aldo series - is it possible to get a ticket without the book?
No problem - please select the 'Cocktail only' ticket option at the checkout.
- Where will we be meeting?
The event will be held at The Crown & Kitchen, 25-27 Bridge Street, East Linton, EH40 3AG.
A note on Covid precautions: if you can, please take a lateral before attending, and if you feel unwell on the day, please err on the side of caution.