Callender is a school friend of the British Consul in Venice. Through his friend’s referrals, Callender provides legal advice, particularly to British subjects who find themselves in difficulties, while enjoying a period of travel abroad.

Callender’s landlady has warned him about dark rumors circulating around the Casimiri, an ancient, noble Venetian family. When an elderly relative by marriage to the Casimiri dies, Callender is asked to help sort out her papers. The woman was of British nationality, and many of her business records are in English. This task brings Callender to the Palazzo Casimiri where he meets the daughter of the house, Donna Clara Casimiri. Clara is engaged to her brother Claudio’s friend Antonio Prepiani. Callender recognizes it is an arranged marriage and her heart is not involved. Callender knows that he could fall in love with her.

Celebrated artist Claude Monet travels on the Orient Express to Venice with his second wife Alice. There has recently been a shocking murder in Alice’s family. Her brother-in-law, the husband of her sister Cecile, was brutally slain. Two servants have been arrested for the crime, but an anonymous letter sent to the police brings new suspicions, and Alice worries about her nephew. Monet hopes the trip to Venice will take her mind off events in Paris.

From a window in the Palazzo, Callender spies a body draped over a thorn tree in a courtyard. It is the body of Count Casimiri. The positioning of the body on the thorn tree was an attempt to disguise the victim’s numerous stab wounds, the actual cause of death.

Callender buys a first edition of a play, “The Cenci,” by the poet Percy Shelley at a bookshop. The son of the shop owner is killed outside Callender’s lodgings. It seems advisable for Callender to leave Venice for a time. Monet commissions Callender to go to Paris to inquire into the progress in the murder investigation.

The first book in this series was In the Kingdom of Mists. Revel Callender does not seem to have been a character in that story; the connection between the two books is Claude Monet. In the City of Dark Waters stands well on its own.

What this book does very successfully is utilize setting. From the first pages, the dark, ominous atmosphere and dank, crumbling facades of Venice present a strong sense of menace.

The multiple murders in multiple cities in multiple eras, however, make for a meandering story line. In addition, more than a little attention is devoted to the declining health of M. and Mme. Monet. Things eventually come together in a fashion, but fans of neat endings may be disappointed in this novel.

On a positive note, Revel Callender is an interesting and appealing character, a man of integrity and intelligence. The author might want to consider bringing him back in a future book.

Readers who enjoy historical mysteries with a sense of time and place may find In the City of Dark Waters a good choice.

--Lesley Dunlap