The Seventh Sacrament cover art

The Seventh Sacrament

The Rome Series: Book 5

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The Seventh Sacrament

By: David Hewson
Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
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About this listen

Winner of the Audible Sounds of Crime Award 2008 for best unabridged audiobook.
Longlisted for the Audiobook Download of the Year, 2007.

It begins on one of Rome's least-known hills, the Aventino, in the public piazza fronting the mansion of the Knights of Malta. There, a curious keyhole to the knights' estate reveals an astonishing view, a direct line across the Tiber to the dome of St. Peters in the distance.

For seven-year-old Alessio Bramante the act of peeping through the keyhole on his way to school each day is a ritual, a way of establishing a bond with his difficult, distant father, one of Rome's most famous archaeologists, Giorgio Bramante. Then one day, after an unexpected visit to one of Giorgio's underground excavations, Alessio disappears. A group of students who had slipped into the site, an ancient Mithraic temple, attract the blame. A tragedy occurs. Alessio is never found, and it's his father who goes to jail.

Fourteen years later, in an arcane shrine by the Tiber known as the Little Museum of Purgatory, a tee-shirt belonging to Bramante's son begins to show fresh bloodstains. No one can understand how the marks have appeared behind the glass. Soon it becomes apparent that the newly-released Giorgio Bramante is bent upon a vicious and terrifying revenge on all those he blames for the loss of his son, and numbers Inspector Leo Falcone, a member of the original investigating team, among his targets. In the depths of the labyrinth he knows better than any man, a distraught father seeks his vengeance against those he hates.

Nic Costa, watching Falcone move relentlessly into the man's deadly grip, realises the answer to the deadly present must lie in solving a cold case that, like the forgotten Alessio Bramante, has long been regarded as dead and buried for good...

©2007 David Hewson (P)2007 W F Howes Ltd.
Crime Thrillers Fiction International Mystery & Crime Literary Fiction Police Procedural Suspense Mystery Thriller Exciting Revenge Cold Case Rome
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Critic reviews

"Artfully weaves several points-of-view as it shifts between past and present....A mystery whose poignant resolution few readers will anticipate." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Seventh Sacrament

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Concentrate!! Then enjoy...

I 'sort of' listened to almost half the book and finally realised that I didn't really know what was going on.
Having not listened to any of the books in the series before I found it very confusing knowing who was who. There are a lot of characters, all with Italian names- and there is no background or anything on any of them.
Still, something about the story intrigued me enough to start to listen again from the beginning. Finally I understood that the story skips from past to present constantly and I got to know the main characters.
After that it became a pleasure to listen to this book - in fact I couldn't stop listening...
As others have already commented: the narration is excellent. I will now look for more books in the series, it should be easier now to get into the story-lines.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

this may be their bggest challenge

david hewson has consistantly produced quality with the 'rome serise' and this is his best yet, after the events in the last book set in venice the gang are back in rome and all is not well with the team or with the ruthless criminals and murderers that are about to give the detectives there biggest challenge yet!!!!

you dont want to miss this book and the whole catalog from david hewson if you havent read any then this is still highly accesable and is fantasticly narrated

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A very good "read"

As with other books by the same author, I loved the mix of mythology, traditions and the present. A couple of things which didn't feel quite right to me: the many references to what had happened in Venice were anomalous if you hadn't read the relevant book, and I felt the Mithraism could have been cut slightly as it didn't seem pertinent every single time it appeared. As ever, the pronunciation removed a star. Reichlin is a great narrator; I do not understand why the producers or the narrator couldn't be bothered to learn how to pronounce the Italian words - it would have made the final product so much better. I know that not all listeners speak Italian, but I'd bet that a fair few do, so why not make it perfect?

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

wonderful book

Starts slowly but has a wonderful finish. An excellent book-both as a thriller and good lierature -in audio form superbly narrated. Best of the Hewson novels so far

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Slow to develop, but a great plot

If a story can grow on you, this one surely does. Just when you think it is coming to a conclusion, off it goes in another direction.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

An interesting plot

The plot of the book is good and it moves along at a fair pace. I'm unfamiliar with the author therefore I downloaded this book on the basis that it was read by Saul Reichlin. Previously I had listened to the Lisbeth Salander trilogy back to back and like others thought that Reichlin's narration was Oscar winning stuff. However, Reichlin uses exactly the same characterisations for his reading of The Seventh Sacrament, which I must admit was a little difficult from time to time. If like me, you want to listen to this immediately after the Salander trilogy, perhaps best to take a break first !

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Mesmerising

This is an audiobook that grips from the outset, and having taken hold, doesn't let go. Very hard to stop listening towards the end. The author's in depth knowledge of Rome and its past shines through, and the complex plot is pretty convincing, though some of the timejumps in the narrative are disconcerting. Very well read and well worth listening to!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good, but bit confusing.

The flipping back and forth in time wasn’t always clear. Enjoyed it though. Great series.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Wanted a tour round Rome but left disappointed

Rome was glossed over and mainly played out underground. Too much of the book was concerned with history of what had happened outside of the current events and the flashing between current time and 14 years ago was distorting

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The Seventh Sacrement

This was my first David Hewson and I thank Audible for recommending his work. 14 wonderful hours of listening and so very well read. Even the difficult names of the characters, being Italian, became easy to remember because of the superb characterisation of the narrator. Beautifully crafted book and now I am about to download the next. Many many thanks.

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4 people found this helpful