The Four Deadly Seasons

A celebrated music impresario is found dead in Venice, his body in a remote palazzo's hot house, with a cryptic musical interval in his hand. Rumors emerge about a rediscovered manuscript: the original score for The Four Seasons, supposedly written by Vivaldi himself. The question remains whether it is a lost masterpiece or an elaborate forgery. Arnold Clover, a reclusive British archivist living in Venice, is drawn into the mystery when hired to authenticate the manuscript. He discovers himself at the center of a conspiracy involving shadowy music chambers, forgotten archives, and Venetian alleyways. As the seasons progress, killings accelerate in rhythm with Vivaldi's concerto—each movement brings another death. To stop the murders, Arnold must decode messages, interpret heretical symbols, and investigate the legend of the diabolus in musica, a sound once believed to summon the Devil. The novel weaves together music, myth, and murder across Venice's hidden history.