A measure of justice

Nicollo Moro, Venice's most feared investigator, is out of a job. Gambling his hopes for a new livelihood on a trading expedition to the East, he arrives in Constantinople, only to find the city gripped by fear as it waits for an Ottoman army to appear at its walls. Soon, a mysterious death in the Venetian quarter gives him an opportunity he has been longing for -- to resurrect his old role and show there is still no one who can do it better. But as he tries to follow the tracks of the elusive killer, he finds he has entered a maze where all trails seem to disappear. And with powerful forces scheming over the city's fate, the man he is after may not be the only one lurking in the maze's labyrinthine passages.

A Measure of Justice is both an intriguing puzzle and a wonderfully imagined recreation of a pivotal moment in history, transporting readers to a city of grand palaces, secretive monasteries, and desolate, despair-ridden streets populated by vivid characters.