Review: The Cemetery of Secrets
Feb 28, 2010 Books
The Cemetery of Secrets (also published as Lucifer’s Shadow)
By: David Hewson
In the ancient burial ground of San Michele on an island off Venice, a young woman’s casket is prised open, an object wrenched from her hands, and an extraordinary story begins.
Young academic Daniel Forster arrives in Venice working for the summer in the library of a private collector. When his employer sends him to buy a stolen violin from a petty thief, he ignites a chain of violence, deception, intrigue and murder. Daniel is drawn into the police investigation surrounding a beautiful woman, a mysterious palazzo and a lost musical masterpiece dating back to 1733.
Separated by centuries, two tales of passion, betrayal and danger collide transporting the reader from the intrigue of Vivaldi’s Venice to the gritty world of a modern detective. From the genius of prodigy to the greed of a killer, The Cemetery of Secrets builds to a shattering crescendo – and one last, breathtaking surprise.
So the premise of the story was pretty interesting (Venice, Italy + musical instrument from centuries ago + mystery = what’s not to be intrigued about?), which is why I picked it up. I had read another book by David Hewson before (The Garden of Evil, part of his Nic Costa series), which was also set in Italy; I was actually surprised that he had written a standalone novel as I though the only had the Nic Costa series.
Anyways, the novel started off promisingly for both strands of the storyline (one that’s taking place in 1733 and one in the present day) but it quickly became clear that the 1733 was the stronger of the two stories. I felt that the present day story with Daniel Forster and Senor Scacchi and Laura were moving incredibly slow; it took well into 100+ pages before their storyline started picking up. But even when the stories started picking up, there were some moments when the story plodded a bit.
But I think the major issue I had with the novel was its characters: 200+ pages in, I realised that I didn’t really connect or feel for any of the characters the way I normally would. Okay, I thought Lorenzo from the 1733 storyline was interesting enough but I didn’t really feel much for the characters in the present day story. In particular, I had no idea what to make of Daniel. At the start, he came off as promising, wanting to see and study in Venice, having come off a particularly sad event. But as you get to know him and he gets embroiled in Scacchi’s schemes, I started wondering what was his motivation for continuing on in the whole intrigue; I mean, he couldn’t possibly be continuing on out of gratitude towards Scacchi. Was he just bored? As a result, I wasn’t really convinced of the way he handled the entire situation.
Which brings me to issue of character interaction, which is related to this: normally there’s a few interactions in a book that you’d pick out that would be interesting, either because of the dialogue or just the connection between the two characters. I didn’t get a sense of either in this book, which waned my enthusiasm for the book.
Overall, the mystery was interesting (when it call came together at the end, it all made sense) and the concept was promising. The character development and interaction was rather disappointing, it would’ve definitely enhanced the reading experience IMO. It wasn’t horrible overall, but I feel that there was some potential in the book that could’ve been utilised more.
Rating: 
Check out the David Hewson’s official website || Order the book from chapters.indigo.ca
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