The Venetian Redemption by Philip Gwynne Jones

This year’s a Venice year. By which I mean, I have a Venice novel out instead of a Sicilian novel. And so, welcome to The Venetian Redemption a title which, I think, works in a number of ways.

This is the ninth novel to feature Nathan Sutherland, British Honorary Consul in Venice and occasional and accidental crime fighter. The usual cast are back as well – Federica brings the smarts, Dario brings his encyclopaedic knowledge of Progressive Rock, and Gramsci – the stroppy Marxist cat – is there to bring his bad attitude. I’m not quite sure how we got to nine novels – it doesn’t seem all that long ago since The Venetian Game came out, but it seems that’s almost ten years ago. And, along the way, Nathan’s adventures kind of became my job, which I’m very grateful for.

But, back to the current novel. In some ways, this is a tying together of a number of themes from the previous two – The Venetian Candidate and The Venetian Sanctuary. I’m not going to say they form a trilogy, but there’s a kind of a consistent theme throughout. 

Back in The Venetian Candidate, I introduced Giuseppe Meneghini as a recurring nemesis for Nathan. A shady businessman with designs on politics, but someone who hasn’t quite crossed the line into downright serious criminality. Or, at least, nothing that could be proved. I enjoyed writing the scenes between him and Nathan so much, I brought him back for The Venetian Sanctuary. 

Now, I like a good Bond/Blofeld confrontation as much as anyone, but this, I thought, was as far as I could go with the character. And that was a shame. I enjoyed writing him, but I wasn’t sure there was anywhere left to develop. 

Unless – what if there was something that would force the two of them to work together? I kept thinking (warning : the Cloister Bell is about to sound a geek alert!) about the cliffhanger to the third episode of the Doctor Who episode Logopolis, where the Doctor and the Master shake hands. Now that was something I really wanted to try my hand at. 

I also needed to develop Meneghini’s back story. I gave him a little romance which I never expected to happen - it was just a story that came about during the writing and I enjoyed it so much I started to wonder if I’d missed my calling as a romance author. (As a side note, my previous editor once suggested I make a side track into romantasy. “You’re Welsh, aren’t you? Stick a dragon in it!”. I’m still not quite sure if she was serious).

There were also things I had to dig into from personal experience. Serious things. About getting older. And about loss. I lost both my mum and dad within the space of eighteen months. Quite simply, this wasn’t something I could ignore. Of course, all those feelings about loss and about rootlessness were going to come out on the page.

Redemption, then? Sympathy for the Devil, if you like? Perhaps, but the title also alludes to the great Venetian festival of Redentore, or, if you prefer, the Feast of the Most Holy Redeemer. It was originally established in thanksgiving for Venice’s deliverance from the great plague of 1576, a plague which killed perhaps a third of the city’s population. Today, it remains – obstinately, and against the odds – as perhaps the most Venetian of festivals. People line the Giudecca canal on both sides, a pontoon bridge is built across the canal linking the area of the Zattere with Andrea Palladio’s great church of Redentore, much eating and drinking is done and fireworks light up the sky (following which everyone will shake their heads sadly, and comment that they were better last year).

But there’s more than that. Redentore was also the occasion of Pink Floyd’s famous – or, rather, infamous – Night of Wonders concert. Two hundred thousand spectators crammed alongside the side of the San Marco Basin to watch the Floyd performing on a floating platform in the lagoon. The amount of rubbish left behind required the intervention of the Italian army to clean up. This, surely, was something I couldn’t ignore and also gave me an opportunity to bring back Nathan’s friend Lucia Frigo, guitarist with the greatest (and possibly only) Black Metal band in Venice.

So, there we are – we have a mixture of the usual nonsense and, I think, something just a little bit more serious in the mix as well. Venice is there in all its beauty and shadowy mystery, there’s a quick visit to the Dolomites and to the cemetery of San Michele, and there might just be a bit of eating and drinking as well.

I hope you enjoy it!

The Venetian Redemption by Philip Gwynne Jones Out now in hardback, eBook and Audio, £22 (Constable). 

The city of Venice is alive with celebrations for Redentore, the most spectacular festival of the year. The streets are lined with revellers eating and drinking, and boats travel along the canals into the bacino of San Marco in anticipation of the firework display. It's going to be a night to remember, and all the more so for Nathan Sutherland and his wife Federica, who have been invited to an exclusive party in the company of the British Ambassador. The festivities take a turn, however, when Nathan suddenly finds himself struggling for breath and is rushed to hospital. Tests show he has all the symptoms of aconite poisoning, a toxin derived from the deadly wolfsbane plant. An unfortunate accident? Or a deliberate attempt to poison him? As Nathan investigates, he discovers many guests might just have had a motive for murder . . .

More information about Phillip Gwynne Jones and his books can be found on his website. He can also be found on Facebook, On X @PGJonesVenice on Instagram @Philipgwynnejones

Agatha Christie Teaser Trailer - A Haunting in Venice

The official trailer for A Haunting in Venice, the third of Kenneth Branagh's Poirot adaptations has been released. When the retired detective attends a séance in a decaying, haunted palazzo in Venice, a sinister world of secrets and murder is unveiled. This supernatural thriller comes to cinemas September 15^th 2023.

Inspired by the novel Hallowe’en Party, and directed by and starring Oscar® winner Kenneth Branagh as famed detective Hercule Poirot. A Haunting in Venice is set in eerie, post-World War II Venice on All Hallows’ Eve and is a terrifying mystery featuring the return of the celebrated sleuth, Hercule Poirot. Now retired and living in self-imposed exile in the world’s most glamorous city, Poirot reluctantly attends a séance at a decaying, haunted palazzo. When one of the guests is murdered, the detective is thrust into a sinister world of shadows and secrets.

Shooter in The Shadows by David Hewson

©Dingena Mol and Crimezone

I have a firm and fast rule about never putting writers in a story, and certainly not personal experience. I also have a firm and fast rule about not believing in rules when it comes to writing.

So the fact I’ve broken both the first two rules in my latest book, SHOOTER IN THE SHADOWS, is neither here nor there. Readers always ask how books come about so let me be frank about this one.

Back in May 2018 I was in New York at the ceremony for the Audies, the annual Oscars of the audiobook world, amazed to find myself shortlisted for best digital original work of the year, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, narrated by the wonderful Richard Armitage. To my astonishment we won, and over drinks afterwards I found myself talking to my long-term friend and Audible producer Steve Feldberg, still pinching myself to believe that had all just happened.

Romeo was, like everything I write, finished in an apartment in Venice where I retreat to blast my way through manuscripts, away from phones, computers, people, desperate for the solitary concentration only Venice can provide. When I told Steve about this he said straight away, ‘There’s a story there. What if you locked yourself away… and found you weren’t really on your own. There was somewhere else too – and they had it in for you.’

Interesting idea. Steve wanted it for an Audible original, which came out last December. And now it’s a book – with an author as the central character, something I’ve never attempted before.

Let me say straight out that my Venice is nothing like the Venice my protagonist, Tom Honeyman, finds himself in. I stay in the middle of sedate Dorsoduro, a short walk away from the wondrous Accademia. Tom, a former hack who made a fortune from a true crime book about a double murder in upstate New York, got sold a pig in a poke when he was flush with cash at the Venice Film Festival: a rotting villa on a desolate former leper island way out in the far north of the lagoon.

While I slave away during the day then relax with a spritz of an evening, Tom locks himself in solitary throughout, no phone, no internet, no easy contact with the outside world, in the belief this will let him rediscover the creativity he so desperately needs to revive his career.

One problem: when the water taxi vanishes into the distance he discovers someone else is on the island. A mysterious figure who seems to know everything about him and his past, and comes with a message: the true crime book that made Tom’s fortune was based on a lie. It named the wrong killer. Now Tom has just days to rewrite his story and finger the real one… or he’s the one who’s dead. All of which he must do from his own notes, his memory and the additional material his assailant supplies. 

So he starts writing and soon we’re dodging back and forth between the Venetian lagoon and a small town called Prosper where a teacher and her pupil, lovers it seems, died in a blaze by an out of the way paradise called Mohawk Lake. 

Can Tom rediscover his mojo in time? Does he even know the answers to the questions his murderous captor is throwing his way? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out. I wanted to write a story that was about the fine line between truth and fiction at times, and how easy it is to cross from one to the other. Tom’s a good writer at heart but as a reporter he was more than happy to bend the facts to suit the story. Now that’s come back to haunt him in the most deadly of ways.

He’s also a writer who, like many, has an almost superstitious believe that his mojo can be unlocked by some kind of magic talisman, like a solitary villa in the Venetian lagoon. After all it worked for Hemingway on Torcello just a few islands away. 

Me? I don’t go for any of that stuff. 

Now… where’s that Campari spritz?

Shooter in the Shadows by David Hewson (Published on 18 July 2020)

Author Tom Honeyman has locked himself away on a tiny, remote island in the Venetian lagoon in the hope of finding the inspiration to save his career. Instead, he has an unwanted intruder, and a threatening deadline. Tom made his money naming the killer in a vicious murder in his home town Prosper in upstate New York. But the individual who’s infiltrated himself onto Tom’s island says he fingered the wrong man. Without access to the outside world, no phone, no internet, no means of escape, Tom must write a new book naming the real villain… or lose his life.

More information about David Hewson and his books can be found on his website. You can also follow him on Twitter @david_hewson.

An introduction trailer to Shooter in The Shadows by David Hewson can be seen below.