"For the first time in decades the eternal city is paralysed by a blizzard. And a gruesome discovery is made in the Pantheon - one of Rome's most ancient and revered architectural treasures. Covered by soft snow is the body of a woman - her back horribly mutilated...Before Nic Costa and Gianni Peroni of the Questura can begin a formal investigation, the US embassy has brought in its own people, FBI agents who want the case closed down as quickly and discreetly as possible.
But Costa is determined to find out why the inquiry is so sensitive - and as the FBI grudingly admits that this corpse is not the first, the multilations on the woman's body point to Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian man - and to a conspiracy so sinister and buried so deep that only two people know its true, crazed meaning" back cover
"[featuring] bits of real antiquity that are better than any of the fake mumbo-jumbo in The Da Vinci Code...fascinating" Toronto Globe & Mail
"David Hewson has got in his stride with the third case for his Italian cops Costa and Peroni...well-paced [and] a significant step forward for this talented writer" Sunday Telegraph