"Captivating, full of texture" - review of Ngaios winner RITUAL OF FIRE

RITUAL OF FIRE by DV Bishop (Macmillan, 2023)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

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 . . .

While After decades of crafting a diverse array of stories from Judge Dredd and 2000 AD comics to BBC radio plays to official Doctor Who and Warhammer novels, Scotland-based New Zealander DV Bishop announced himself on the historical mystery scene in 2021 with a sumptuous first novel, City of Vengeance, starring Cesare Aldo, a fascinating investigator serving the feared Otto Di Guardia e Balia criminal court in Renaissance Florence. A thrilling page-turner that vividly evoked time and place, Bishop’s crime debut soaked readers in the grandeur and grime of the sixteenth century city. A place and time where a modern tourist spot like Ponte Vecchio was then awash with blood and offal every evening, and many rulers terms were cut short thanks to the machinations of those closest to them.

That first novel demanded an ongoing series, and Bishop has delivered, with quality. Last year’s sequel, The Darkest Sin, won the CWA Historical Dagger as well as being longlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel in Bishop’s homeland, adding to an array of several awards listings and wins for the Cesare Aldo series already. The latest instalment, Ritual of Fire, has already been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize in Scotland, and offers readers another rip-snorting story.

It's summer 1538, and the city of Florence is sweltering. Then a night patrol finds a rich merchant hanged and set ablaze in the city’s main piazza, evoking memories of the execution of popular puritanical monk Girolamo Savonarola forty years earlier. Cesare Aldo is now hunting thieves in the Tuscan countryside, far outside the city walls, following a falling out with his former protégé Constable Carlo Strocchi. So it’s up to Strocchi to investigate the ritualistic killing. When another rich merchant is burned alive in public, the pressure rises from the city’s leaders. Are Savonarola’s followers making a new play for power, or long-marinated revenge? Or is something else going on? Aldo and Strocchi must set aside their differences to unmask dangerous killers as religious fervour and a scorching heatwave drives the city-state towards riots and self-destruction. 

Bishops delivers another captivating, action-packed mystery that’s full of flavour and texture. He finely balances history and mystery, offering readers plenty of insight into the era without ever overwhelming the intrigue and forward momentum. Aldo is a fascinating protagonist; a man of the law who is breaking the law (of the times). A man giving all of himself to a regime and superiors that could see him imprisoned or worse if his secret came to light. His sexuality is a Sword of Damocles. 

In a strange way, I think there's a bit of Harry Bosch in Cesare Aldo - in that Aldo is an honourable man that is full of some contradictions, who loves his city and is determined to protect its people, even as he stands apart, a lone sentinel fully aware of all the flaws in the place he loves and protects.

A great read in a great series that will hopefully have many more instalments to come. 

This review was first published in the August 2023 issue of Deadly Pleasures magazine, and is republished here following Ritual of Fire winning the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.