When a book cover does the author no favours
A Story of Musical Murders set in VENICE
23rd October 2025
The Four Deadly Seasons by David Hewson – a story of musical murders set in Venice (and Vienna).
The Four Deadly Seasons is the third title in David Hewson’s Arnold Clover Venetian Mysteries series. It is every bit as good as the first two – The Medici Murders and The Borgia Portrait. This time Arnold is persuaded by one of his old friends (archivist Luca Volpetti) that it is time he earned some money. He is introduced to a couple who are transforming a dilapidated palazzo into a luxurious classical music venue. No expense is being spared…The opening performance is going to be Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’. Then (not a spoiler – it happens early in the book) the husband commits suicide. It turns out he had some pretty dodgy (and dangerous) business connections – with links to the Bulgarian mafia. His glamorous wife takes over the project by herself.
Arnold is hired to write a ‘popular’ book about Vivaldi to tie in with the launch of the project. It is rumoured that a handwritten (by Vivaldi) copy of the original score for The Four Seasons, plus handwritten notes of his autobiography he was writing, set at the time he was dying in Vienna, might be about to re-appear and turbocharge the project. Arnold, an archivist in London before he moved to Venice, can’t wait to get this hand on the material.
He is charged with tracking down the papers – unaware of the danger in which he will find himself. He encounters the aforementioned Bulgarian mafia, MI5 agents, and people linked to the shadier side of the Kremlin. At one stage he is even ‘for his own protection’ thrown into gaol in Venice by another old friend, Valentina Fabbri, of the local police. The plot progresses with several murders (to tie in with the Four Seasons) until it reaches a pulsating climax on New Year’s Eve.
As ever with David’s books, the plot detail is very cleverly worked. As Arnold investigates the provenance of the Vivaldi papers, David ties in what is historically known of Vivaldi’s life with his own embellishments to make an imagined, but very plausible, account of how the man might have been.
Venice, of course, comes through loud and very clear in the book. David describes places off the normal tourist route where the overcrowding of St Mark’s Square and of the Rialto Bridge seem a continent away. This is a Venice where the locals are happy…The eateries and bars that Arnold visits with Luca and Valentina are authentic (and very tempting).
The Venetian Mysteries is a very good series, and The Four Deadly Seasons is a worthy addition.
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