EBOOK Seventh Sacrament

In the heat of a Rome summer, a seven-year-old boy vanishes in the dank catacombs beneath the city. Now fourteen years have passed, and in acclaimed author David Hewsons stunning new crime novel the heart-wrenching case has come back to life as Detective Nic Costa and his fellow investigators search through layers of their citys historyfor a killer leaving a trail of bodies, lust, and revenge.When young Alessio Bramante vanished, there was plenty of blame to go around. His father, a charismatic professor of archaeology, inexplicably left Alessio alone near a labyrinth of ancient tunnels and excavations. Six of the professors university students, fueled by booze and bravado, involved the boy in their own bizarre ritual at an altar of the ancient warrior god Mithras. And then there were the police: a commanding officer left Giorgio Bramante alone with the prime suspect, allowing Alessios father to beat the man to death.After years in prison, Giorgio has been set free and, one by one, those connected to the boys disappearance are dying. As Costa and his fellow detectives scramble to find Giorgio, they are thrust into a darkening web of hidden perversions and secret passions past and present.Because at the heart of this caseas close and as far away as Romes underground treasuresis the unanswered question: what really happened to little Alessio Bramante fourteen years agoand why was his body never found?From the Hardcover edition.