The Garden of Angels

March 5, 2021

Full of layers, like a Russian nesting doll, this stand-alone thriller from "Nic Costa" series author Hewson has portions set in the present and 20 years earlier, but the core of the action takes place in 1943 Venice. Mussolini's government has collapsed, and the Nazis have taken over northern Italy. The occupying forces are hunting down Jews; some Venetians are cooperating, some are resisting, and many are just trying to evade attention. Paolo Uccello, a shy teenage orphan now left to run his family's failing weaving business, comes across a body that has been fished out of a canal. An offhand remark at the scene results in his sheltering two Jewish partisans, one of them seriously wounded. The young woman of the pair schemes to connect with the local resistance, while her brother recuperates and develops a friendship (and more) with Paolo. The explosive climax comes when the roundup, the weaving, the rebellion, and the relationship collide one winter day. The Uccello business survives but is forever changed. VERDICT A good read for those who love their World War II thrillers with a bit of history included. Followers of Donna Leon's "Commissario Brunetti" mysteries may appreciate the atmosphere and the intrigue.--W. Keith McCoy, Edison, NJ

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May 1, 2021
Hewson, author of the Nic Costa series, jumps back and forth in time to tell the story of the Uccello family, celebrated Venetian weavers of fine velvet, and what happened to them in 1943 during the German occupation. Nico Uccello is a callow 15-year-old when his grandfather Paolo, close to death, shares with him a typed manuscript describing Paolo's role in hiding two Jewish partisans, brother and sister Vanni and Mika, in the family home, the Palazzo Colombina. Then 18, Paolo would prefer to stay out of politics altogether, focusing only on saving the family business, in free fall after the death of his parents, but he agrees to the request of a priest to provide a hideout for the partisans. Moving between the story of Paolo's coming-of-age, including his attraction to Vanni, and those of various other Venetians during the war, particularly notorious ""Jew hunter"" Salvatore Bruno, Hewson displays the gifts that distinguish the Costa series: the ability to bring texture and humanity to multiple characters and to explore significant moments in history through the microcosm of those characters' lives.

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