Cesare Aldo is facing another case which will demand all his ingenuity and tact: a man has been found, stabbed, in a convent, and shortly after an officer of the law is dredged up from the Arno. Political and social tensions run high in Florence in the 1530s, just after the assassination of the first Medici duke, and a false step would be all too easy. Bishop’s well-researched story is gripping to the end.