Florence, 1536, the winter chill is setting in, and two men lie dead. One was a prostitute who kept detailed notes of all of his powerful clientele, notes that could be ruinous should they be revealed. The other body, however, has the city in turmoil – he was a moneylender and his wealth was crucial to the smooth running of the city.

Cesare Aldo, an officer of the city’s criminal court, is given four days to find the killer, but Aldo soon uncovers a plot to overthrow the ruler of the city. But as conspirators plot to deal with Aldo’s knowledge of their plot, a rival of Aldo knows secrets about him that could destroy him. With danger from all sides, can Aldo survive long enough to bring the justice that the city needs?

This has been on my shelf for a while, but I’ve had a lot of books already satisfying my historical mystery itch, whether it be old favourites like Paul Doherty, Michael Jecks or L C Tyler, or newer authors (to me at least) like S G Maclean or Douglas Skelton. There’s  probably some sign of my shallowness in that most of the new historical authors I’ve tried recently has been due to me being sent a copy of the book.

So why this one? Well, in February, I’m off to Stockport Noir as it’s a book festival featuring some authors that I really like and some others that I’ve been meaning to read for a while, it’s less than two hours to drive to and, to be honest, it was pretty cheap (I’d provide a link but it’s sold out already). So I decided it was time to start working through some of the unread authors. And the first of them, alphabetically, who had written a book that I owned was D V Bishop.

In terms of other historical crime writers, I’d say this is closest in style to Michael Jecks, with multiple story strands weaving together to tell the story of the fall of a Duke and the tribulations of Cesare Aldo, while taking time to flesh out the characters. By the end of the book, there seems to be a fairly full complement of characters who I expect to recur in the series and who I feel that I know enough about to want to know more.

What might put off the mystery reader is that this is based on real events – there are a lot of real historical personages on display here – so it limits how events can play out. There is something of a murder mystery here, but it is only one thread and it’s not that much of a surprise. What this book does is, rather like Jecks’ The Last Templar, is introduce characters and set them up for things to come. It looks to me as if Bishop wants to tell stories about SPOILER’s reign as the Duke of Florence but felt that it worked better to tell the tale of how that happens.

And it’s a good choice because this is a really good book. I’d class it as historical intrigue, and it’s an engrossing read. And I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens next…