Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Summary and Reviews of The Sacred Cut by David Hewson

The Sacred Cut by David Hewson

The Sacred Cut

A Nic Costa Mystery

by David Hewson
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (9):
  • First Published:
  • Jan 1, 2006, 352 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Aug 2006, 512 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

The snow is falling in Rome - in the heart of the city, under the Pantheon's great dome, a woman's body lies on the marble floor, carefully positioned with a gruesome carving on her back....this horrific murder hurtles Rome's police force into a collision with U.S. agents–and a secret that has festered for fifteen years, now unraveling in the world's most enigmatic city.

The snow is falling on the ancient streets of Rome. And in the heart of the city, under the Pantheon's great dome, a woman's body lies on the marble floor, carefully positioned with a gruesome carving on her back....In David Hewson's ingenious new thriller, this horrific murder hurtles Rome's police force into a collision with U.S. agents–and a secret that has festered for fifteen years, now unraveling in the world's most enigmatic city.

When Detective Nic Costa arrives at the scene, he is unprepared for what he finds, or for the ambush that leaves his only witness vanished into the night. The dead woman was American. Within hours, U.S. agents descend with a take-no-prisoners style and a shocking story to tell: the killer has struck before, in monuments all over the world, leaving the same cryptic message carved onto the bodies of the victims.

But one agent, beautiful, blond Emily Deacon, has yet another story to tell Nic–about a stunning act of deception that may lead back to the U.S. government, and her own chilling, personal connection to the killer. Now, as the first murder leads to more grisly slayings and a motley crew of veteran Roman cops jousts with the Americans, Nic is pulled into a woman's harrowing search for the truth…a search that will take them both into the mind of a madman, into a shocking conspiracy–and into a dark episode in a nation's long-forgotten past.

From its haunting opening to its nerve-shattering climax, The Sacred Cut defies all our expectations, proving once again the unique and compelling genius of David Hewson.

Mercoledi

The two plainclothes cops huddled in the doorway of a closed farmacia in Via del Corso, shivering, teeth chattering, watching Mauro Sandri, the fat little photographer from Milan, fumble with the two big Nikon SLRs dangling round his neck. It was five days before Christmas and for once Rome was enjoying snow, real snow, deep and crisp and even, the kind you normally only saw on the TV when some surprise blizzard engulfed those poor miserable bastards living in the north.

It fell from the black sky as a perfect, silky cloud. Thick flakes curled around the gaudy coloured lights of the street decorations in a soft, white embrace. The pavements were already blanketed in a crunchy, shoe-deep covering in spite of the milling crowds who had pounded the Corso's black stones a few hours earlier, searching for last-minute Christmas presents in ...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

Nic Costa is a protagonist for the modern day - just like Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti, Costa is a thoughtful man of many facets who struggles to do the right thing.  Described by some as a Roman Inspector Morse, the series is gaining quite a reputation in Hewson's native England, and is overdue to breakout in the USA.  Hewson feels that most crime fiction falls into two categories, 'bloodless-crime' where murder is a catalyst to an intellectual puzzle; and 'tough guy crime', which assumes that the world is neatly divided between good and and bad. Neither appeal to him because neither represent the world we live in.  Hewson's characters inhabit a real world where virtually every issue is measured, not in black and white, but in shades of gray, and the issue in question is how to respond to these challenges as an individual. 

I don't usually expect a detective mystery to reshape how I think about things but just one throw-away comment from Costa in the opening pages has caused me to question that old adage 'a picture's worth a thousand words'. "You know the great thing about pictures?  They only show what's on the surface. The rest you make up. You write your own story. You imagine your own beginning and your own ending. Pictures are fiction pretending to be truth."..continued

Full Review (534 words)

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access, become a member today.

(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

Media Reviews

Mystery File - Steve Lewis
This is as intriguing a police procedural as I've read in a long time. Humorous when it needs to be, sad when it needs to be, philosophical when it needs to be, and real all of the time, this is a long novel which you will wish was even longer.

The Detroit Free Press
The Sacred Cut is refreshing because it's low-key. But sometimes less is creepier. Even the climax is something you don't see often in books like this: bloodless, but fully satisfying.

Canberra Times, Australia - Jeff Popple
This is a very impressive and enjoyable police thriller. The story unfolds quickly, with a regular unveiling of surprises and bursts of action. All the characters are well rounded and interesting, and Hewson's descriptions of a snow-clad Rome and its ancient monuments are evocative, and contrast nicely with the convincing depicting of post-September 11, 2001, geopolitics. Overall it is an engaging and intelligent crime novel.

The Age, Melbourne - Cameron Woodhead
It beats the hell out The Da Vinci Code and anyone disappointed by that novel should give this one a try.

The Globe and Mail, Toronto - Margaret Cannon
This is the third novel in this Roman cop series, and I'm hooked. I love the way Hewson combines 4,000 years of Roman history with 21st-century police plots. I love the Ed McBain style, with recurring characters who play different roles in each book. Most of all, I love the atmosphere and the beautifully crafted plots.

Booklist - Bill Ott
Starred review. A masterful mix of the high-concept historical thriller and the cynical contemporary Italian procedural.

Kirkus Reviews
Hewson's literate prose, bolstered by local color and historical tidbits, makes for top-flight entertainment.

Publishers Weekly
Hewson's solid writing and multidimensional characters command attention from start to finish of this smart, literate thriller.

Reader Reviews

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book



About the Nic Costa series: The Sacred Cut is Hewson's third mystery to star Roman detective Nic Costa.  The series started with A Season for the Dead, published in the UK in 2003 and in the USA in 2004.  Then followed The Villa of Mysteries (2004/2005) and The Sacred Cut (2005).

The next in the series, The Lizard's Bite was published in the UK in March and will be available in hardcover in the USA this November. Hewson says the story harks back to an earlier standalone mystery he wrote - Lucifer's Shadow (published in the UK in 2001 and in the US in 2005), and includes some of the same characters.  Costa takes on a case that, for the first time, takes him beyond the known and comfortable confines of Rome, ...

This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Sacred Cut, try these:

  • Imperium jacket

    Imperium

    by Robert Harris

    Published 2007

    About this book

    More by this author

    Of all the great figures of the Roman world, none was more fascinating or charismatic than Cicero. Imperium recounts in vivid detail the story of Cicero's quest for glory, competing with some of the most powerful and intimidating figures of his age: Pompey, Caesar, Crassus, and many others.

  • Before The Frost jacket

    Before The Frost

    by Henning Mankell

    Published 2006

    About this book

    More by this author

    In this latest atmospheric thriller, Kurt Wallander and his daughter Linda, just graduated from the police academy, join forces to search for a religious fanatic on a murder spree and soon find themselves forced to confront a group of extremists bent on punishing the world's sinners.

We have 6 read-alikes for The Sacred Cut, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
More books by David Hewson
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

Books with similar themes


Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Missing Thread
    The Missing Thread
    by Daisy Dunn
    The fabric of ancient history is stitched heavily with stories of dramatic politics, conquest, and ...
  • Book Jacket: Model Home
    Model Home
    by Rivers Solomon
    Rivers Solomon's novel Model Home opens with a chilling and mesmerizing line: "Maybe my mother is ...
  • Book Jacket
    The Frozen River
    by Ariel Lawhon
    "I cannot say why it is so important that I make this daily record. Perhaps because I have been ...
  • Book Jacket
    Prophet Song
    by Paul Lynch
    Paul Lynch's 2023 Booker Prize–winning Prophet Song is a speedboat of a novel that hurtles...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Book Jacket
The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl disappears, leaving a mystery unsolved for fifty years.
Who Said...

A book may be compared to your neighbor...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now