«Allan Prime looked ready to die of fright, even before the bright, shining spear with the blood-soaked tip reached his head ...The death mask of the poet Dante is to be exhibited at the premiere of a controversial new film, «Inferno». But at the grand unveiling this priceless artefact is replaced by a macabre death mask of the film's star, Allan Prime. Minutes later the leading actress, Maggie Flavier, is threatened before her attacker is shot. Nic Costa and his team are sidelined from the investigation in Rome and follow the movie to its next showing in San Francisco, hoping to recover the stolen death mask. But in California confusing new clues suggest that there is more behind the killing than a crazed Dante fan. With the authorities distracted by false leads, can Costa protect Maggie, find the truth and stop the killer — all before life imitates art?»

Giorgio Bramante, a Roman archaeology professor, was master of the hidden world beneath the earth – until the day he lost his young son, Alessio, to a group of students intent on re-creating a centuries-old ritual to a long-banished god. His rage knew no bounds and, in a frenzy, he beat one of the students to death. Released from prison fourteen years later, Giorgio is bent upon a terrifying revenge on all those he blames for the loss of his son. Inspector Leo Falcone, a member of the original investigating team, is one of his targets. And Nic Costa, watching Falcone move relentlessly into the man’s merciless grip, realizes the answer must lie in solving a cold case that, like the forgotten Alessio Bramante, has long been regarded as dead and buried for good.

For the first time in decades The Eternal City is paralysed by a blizzard. And a gruesome discovery is made in the Pantheon — one of Rome's most ancient and revered architectural treasures. Covered by softly falling snow is the body of a young woman — her back horribly mutilated... But before Costa, Peroni and Rome's Questura can begin a formal investigation the US Embassy has brought in its own people, FBI Agents who want the case closed down as quickly and discreetly as possible. But Costa is determined to find out why — and as the FBI grudgingly admits that this corpse is not the first, the mutilations of the woman's body point to Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man — and to a conspiracy so sinister and buried so deep, that only two people know its true, crazed meaning.