Tour guide Alvise Marangon thinks he knows Venice better than ever, but now finds himself ensnared by mysteries as obscure as the city and in many cases just as old.

Venice in 1749 – the city has lost its political and financial primacy but has become Europe’s pleasure capital, famous for its gambling dens, its courtesans, its hectic carnival, its music, art and theatre – and the most highly organised secret service in Europe.

When Sir Alfred Aimslet hires January Esposito to investigate the disappearance of his son, Piers, Jan’s peaceful days of teaching English in Verona come to an abrupt end. Despite Jan’s ingenious improvisation and his efforts at a simple, discreet investigation, he finds himself more and more tangled in a web of political ideology and drug dealing that takes the mystery fifty years into the village’s past and its bitter memories of World War II.

Six months after being released from prison for forgery, London artist Martin Phipps is starting over. While making the rounds at a gallery opening, Martin meets and speaks with a mysterious Italian man who is searching for the same art dealer that hired Martin to paint forgeries. Later that evening, while walking the streets of London, Martin saves the Italian man from being mugged. In the scuffle, he sees in the man’s bag a photograph, of a very rare painting, recently stolen from a church outside of Venice–The Madonna of the Swan.

It had been a bad week for January Esposito. First, he is fired from his job in London; then a letter from his girlfriend enclosing a snapshot of her wedding to a Mormon missionary. A visit from his medallion-sporting brother Gigi didn’t help, particularly when his hasty departure through the kitchen window coincided with a mysterious visit from two less amicable Neapolitans. The mystery takes him to Naples, where he realises he and his brother are embroiled in a conspiracy that is fast assuming global and deadly proportions.

Hungover at the end of the college term and anticipating three weeks of cat-minding for his eccentric uncle in London, Paul Stannard is drafted into the service of Her Royal Highness and finds himself adrift in the world of terrorism and espionage.