The Flood

Distinctive characters compensate for the at times slow-moving plot of Hewson’s atmospheric Italian mystery, set mainly in Florence in 1986. Pino Fratelli, a semiretired carabineer, meets British graduate student Julia Wellbeloved, who’s studying the connection between violence and art, at a Florentine chapel, where a fresco of Adam and Eve has been defaced with blood. The culprit is Aldo Pontecorvo, who’s involved with a gunrunner for the Red Brigade. Hewson (Carnival for the Dead) doesn’t generate much suspense with the crime-solving efforts, even after the decapitation murder of an aristocrat. Nicely rendered chapters set 20 years earlier, during the historical flood of the title provide some colorful, though not strictly necessary, background. The book’s greatest strength is the engaging relationship that develops among Pino, Julia, and 22-year-old Luca Cassini, the not-so-bright carabineer assigned to help them. Readers who want to see more of this trio can only hope that their next case will be more intriguing. (Oct.)