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City of Vengeance (1) (Cesare Aldo series) Hardcover – October 1, 2021

by D. V. (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 831 ratings
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"City of Vengeance is a first-class historical thriller with echoes of The Name of the Rose. Bishop’s spirited and richly detailed story, layered with issues of humanity that still bedevil society today, is a tour-de-force and clearly demonstrates the sixteenth century was as full of thrills and mysteries as the twenty-first, perhaps even a shade more."  — DAVID BALDACCI, global bestselling crime author

An explosive historical thriller set against the backdrop of the Medici dynasty in 1530s Renaissance Florence. 


Florence. Winter, 1536. A prominent Jewish moneylender is murdered in his home, a death with wide implications in a city powered by immense wealth.

Cesare Aldo, a former soldier and now an officer of the Renaissance city’s most feared criminal court, is given four days to solve the murder: catch the killer before the feast of Epiphany – or suffer the consequences.

During his investigations, Aldo uncovers a plot to overthrow the volatile ruler of Florence, Alessandro de’ Medici. If the Duke falls, it will endanger the whole city. But a rival officer of the court is determined to expose details about Aldo’s private life that could lead to his ruin. Can Aldo stop the conspiracy before anyone else dies, or will his own secrets destroy him first?

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Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 4
    Cesare Aldo
  2. Print length
    416 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Macmillan UK
  5. Publication date
    October 1, 2021
  6. Dimensions
    6.02 x 1.4 x 9.21 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    1529038774
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1529038774
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A complex, intriguing plot which weaves its way through the treacherous streets of sixteenth century Florence, encountering danger at every dark corner." --Sarah Maine, author, The House Between Tides

"So fluid and fluent, the pages almost turn themselves . . . Aldo is a great creation, resourceful, driven and forced to hide who he really is, but nevertheless is compelled to find justice for those who deserve it." --James Oswald, author, the Inspector McLean series

"Richly atmospheric . . . transports you to another time and place." --Ambrose Parry, author, The Way of All Flesh

About the Author

D. V. Bishop is an award-winning screenwriter and TV dramatist. His love for the city of Florence and the Renaissance period meant there could be only one setting for his crime fiction debut. City of Vengeance won the Pitch Perfect competition at Bloody Scotland 2018, and he was awarded a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship by the Scottish Book Trust while writing the novel. When not busy being program leader for creative writing at Edinburgh Napier University, he plans his next research trip to Florence.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Macmillan UK (October 1, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1529038774
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529038774
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.02 x 1.4 x 9.21 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 831 ratings

About the author

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D. V. Bishop

D. V. Bishop

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D. V. Bishop writes the award-winning Cesare Aldo historical thrillers set in Renaissance Florence. CITY OF VENGEANCE (2021) won the New Zealand Booklovers Award for best novel, and was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. THE DARKEST SIN (2022) won the prestigious Crime Writers' Assocation Historical Dagger, while RITUAL OF FIRE (2023) was longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize. The 4th Cesare Aldo thriller, A DIVINE FURY, is coming in June 2024...

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
831 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Erwin C. Pantel
5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable Historic Mystery
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2024
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I enjoyed D.V. Bishop’s City of Vengeance and look forward to reading the next book in the series. 16th century Venice with the many intrigues was a great setting for Bishop’s characters.
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Ambrose Rankin
4.0 out of 5 stars Too Many Plotlines
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2023
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Interesting historical novel set in 16th century Florence - mixing real and fictional events. The novel introduces Cesare Aldo - former condotteri, current investigator for the Medici government. Aldo is a gay man and it is nice to see a strong series character who just happens to be gay - and there are other books in the Aldo series. The plot deals with three murders - but I think it would have been better to focus on just two - a Medici (which is based on actual events) and Jewish moneylender involved in the plot. The third murder - that of a young transvestite prostitute just hangs over the story without really advancing the plot.
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Bradley Wood
5.0 out of 5 stars nice bk.
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2023
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lot's of confusing names-it's really interesting!!-I like!!
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RF
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2021
City of Vengeance by D.V. Bishop is an excellent historical fiction that has it all: an excellent historical fiction plot, mystery, murder, suspense, intrigue, and was truly fascinating.

This book is the first in what is sure to be an excellent new series set in Florence, Italy. The Renaissance time period creates a great atmosphere of societal, cultural, and political change. This is a great selection as a backdrop for the narrative. This book starts towards the latter end of 1536 and we are introduced to Cesare Aldo, a complicated man with a past. A man of the law, a previous soldier, and a complex and flawed individual that makes for great reading. He ends up being placed into a predicament: solve a high-profile murder in just a few days time or face the consequences. The investigations between Aldo and his colleague Carlo Strocchi make for a suspenseful, gripping, and thrilling read. The more they uncover, the more political espionage and darkening plots that are discovered. Things continue to get complicated with when the ante is raised at the involvement of the potential usurping and deadly plot to kill the city’s number one man: Duke Alessandro de Medici. As the book continues on, we see how separate cases, circumstances, and details seem to intertwine and thicken, and the book comes to a fabulous conclusion.

What makes this even better for me is to know that this story, and characters, will continue onward and that some of the dramatic details are actually based on real facts. I love when a book can be tied into history.

This is a wonderful tapestry of HF, complex and well-drawn out characters and plot lines, mysteries that kept me guessing, twists, turns, suspense, and thrilling events that truly make for a wonderful novel.

I highly recommend this gem.

5/5 stars
7 people found this helpful
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Zoe (whatsbetterthanbooks)
5.0 out of 5 stars Mysterious, gritty, and atmospheric!
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2021
City of Vengeance is a dramatic, alluring tale that takes us back to Renaissance Florence in the winter of 1536 and into the life of Cesare Aldo, an officer of the Otto, as he struggles to investigate the murder of Jewish moneylender, Samuele Levi, expose a coup to once and for all remove Alessandro de’ Medici from power, and protect himself from a bigoted coworker intent on exposure.

The prose is authentic and fluid. The characters are complex, relentless, and intriguing. And the plot is a compelling, sinister tale full of life, loss, duty, friendship, coercion, deception, dissension, conspiracies, discrimination, political strife, violence, and murder.

Overall, City of Vengeance is a richly described, absorbing, well-written tale by Bishop that grabs you from the very first page and is a wonderful start to a series, Cesare Aldo, that blends two of my favourite genres, historical fiction and mystery, and interweaves it with a thread of all the weaknesses and vulnerabilities that ultimately make us human.
One person found this helpful
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Haley R. Flores
4.0 out of 5 stars LGBTQ+ Historical Fiction
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2021
3.5/5

This was a good mystery, solid in that area alone. I also loved the historical setting, it was unique to most of the mysteries I read. Going on about the setting, I felt it was really well done in descriptions and transported me to where Aldo was in a Renaissance Florence. The fact that Caesar Aldo was gay also was an added bonus for me, and he wasn’t just written that way for the ‘sake of it’ the author took time to develop him as a full-fledged character not only in sexuality but in background, a well hashed out history where a lot of mystery writers tend to forget to have that for their MCs.

The mystery did drag on a bit and I felt the middle was a bit muddled because of that, but it did alright, as I said a solid mystery read at the end of the day.

There were other characters that we tend to write out of history and I appreciated the author’s authenticity in giving those forgotten characters their proper places in history.

Downsides? The pacing again, with the large slump in the middle was a big one. Another point that had me rating this down was the over use of the curse words in Italian. It was always just the one ‘curse’ word in Italian and it was like when a child learnds a new ‘naughty’ word and just wants to go to town with it. It also was a bit sad that, that was the only Italian language that was used.

Still, fun mystery, really great ending and I am curious to see what Aldo does next!
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Charmaine Doyle
5.0 out of 5 stars Love this book
Reviewed in Canada on September 10, 2021
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Thoroughly enjoyed reading City of Vengeance and would highly recommend if you like historical fiction. Can't wait for the second book in the series.
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Scarpol
5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars.
Reviewed in Italy on January 27, 2023
Verified Purchase
More of the same. A decent page turner with hearty flavour, and sauce.
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Christine Boos
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, captivating, interesting!
Reviewed in Germany on January 23, 2022
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One of the best historical mystery novels I have ever read!!! A mixture of fiction embedded in real historical events of the times (1536), have really really kept my attention through and through!!!

Cesare Aldo is an officer of the Otto, equivalent to police force. He is looking into the murder of a Jewish money lender. The investigation leads him to wider and wider circles, up to the political world! And what a world : the Medici's are in power..... Corruption is their world with members reaching even the Otto... Brilliant writing, raw violence, relatable characters, atmospheric insights on Renaissance Florence, a complex plot, action and a charismatic Aldo (unfortunately he prefers men!), bending the law without breaking it show the brilliance of the author! Highly recommended!
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars An assured and evocative piece of crime writing, and a great introduction for its lead character.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2021
Verified Purchase
Given I’m not remotely short of books to read or anything, how did I come to pick City Of Vengeance up? Well, truth be told, I do like a crime thriller, and I love Florence, so how could I not be intrigued?
Also that “…introducing Cesare Aldo…” on the cover has such confidence, and the half dozen lines from the text that form the blurb were similarly assured. Beyond that, tho, it was a blind purchase.
Tbh, my ‘to read’ pile is large, and City Of Vengeance could well have sat on it for weeks, months, or years. Then one Friday morning, I was laid low and incapable of much work, so I picked up City Of Vengeance instead.
Got through the first 125 pages on Friday, finished the remaining 275 pages the next day.
There are probably three franchises that I return to annually – Ian Rankin’s Rebus and Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers Of London have been immediate must reads for years, while I’m slowly working my way through the Reacher novels as the mood takes me.
Inevitably, though, all three of those are dominated by the viewpoint of their lead characters (although John Rebus has been very gracious of late with ceding some ground to Siobhan).
“…introducing Cesare Aldo…” led me to expect much of the same. And in many ways, it is.
With the investigation into the death of a moneylender in Florence, the narrative is driven by Aldo throughout. However, with that in mind, the first few chapters threw me. Just a touch.
Because it’s not *just* Aldo’s story and his perspective. Because it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, those switches felt a little rough early on. But make no mistake, this is a v accomplished piece of writing.
A perceptive investigator navigating a judicial system where one misstep can be disastrous, Aldo also has very human needs and flaws. He’s likeable and identifiable and dangerous in all the right ways.
But it’s not just the lead character who carries you. The novel also delivers a wonderfully vivid depiction of Florence and Italy in the 1500s, and David’s achieved this by pairing his lead with a whole host of similarly well-crafted characters.
This is franchise writing in the best sense. I can see a supporting array of at least half a dozen characters, all of whom could create and carry storylines.
These range from the highest intrigues of the court, to Aldo’s fellow officers, to the underworld and the bordellos and the trading guilds.
This is an assured piece of mainstream crime writing that goes above and beyond in the way it creates a complete world
And I loved it.
More please.
22 people found this helpful
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printmaker
4.0 out of 5 stars A good read........
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 4, 2023
Verified Purchase
Quite an interesting concept; a most enjoyable read, so much so, I have ordered the next two books!
2 people found this helpful
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