Fourteen years ago, the seven-year-old son of Giorgio, an eminent archeologist, vanished in the tunnels beneath Rome’s ancient Circus Maximus.  Believing one of his students responsible, Giorgio beat the student to death.  The professor served a long sentence and was released, his child never found.

In David Hewson’s Seventh Sacrament—the fifth book in the Nic Costa series—Roman Inspector Nic Costa and his colleague, Leo Falcone, revive this mismanaged, cold case. 

Asking questions that should have been asked before, Costa and Falcone head back into the labyrinthine underworld of Rome, to the lost cult of Mithras, and to Giorgio.

“I became fascinated by underground Rome,” says bestseller Hewson.  “When I looked into the subject, it was impossible to get away from Mithras.”

Followers of Mithras, a religion that originated in Persia, adhered to a rigorous form of hierarchy. Practitioners were divided into seven levels, from novice to expert. To rise through the ranks, an ordeal or challenge had to be undertaken. 

“Many aspects of Mithraism—such as we know them—mirror practices in Christianity,” says Hewson. “Both had the idea of seven sacraments.”

Hewson’s enchantment with Rome began in childhood.  Raised in a children’s home in northern England, the charity library was filled with Victorian versions of Roman and Greek classics.  “The idea of the Mediterranean as a warm, human, exciting place was planted in me there, I guess,” he says.  “I still think the place (Rome) is the greatest city on earth, and I’m not a city man.”

David Hewson is the bestselling author of a dozen novels.  He started out as a journalist and worked for many years as a staff reporter in London for The Times and as a weekly columnist for the Sunday Times.  Born in Yorkshire, England, Hewson lives in the town of Wye in Southern England and has just signed on to write three more Nic Costa books.  Read an excerpt of Seventh Sacrament here.