Shadow of Madness by D. V. Bishop

I review Shadow of Madness, the sixth book in the Cesare Aldo historical mystery series by D. V. Bishop.

Previous reviews of the series: City of Vengeance, The Darkest Sin, Ritual of Fire, A Divine Fury, Carnival of Lies

I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Shadow of Madness is out now by Macmillan.

About the Book
The Sound of Madness
Book Blurb
Review
Our Judgement

Possible fit for The Sound of Madness Reading Challenge 2026 prompts:

Joker prompt that goes with anything: Freefall

Tuscany. Winter, 1540.

Travelling north into the hills above Florence, investigator Cesare Aldo seeks answers about his past. The trail leads him to Ospedale de’ Pazzi, a secure institution for the criminally insane.

Soon after arriving a blizzard engulfs the area, trapping Aldo and his companion, Doctor Saul Orvieto. Even more alarming, their cart driver is found dead. It looks like he fell over a nearby cliff in the whiteout – but Aldo suspects foul play. When a brutal slaying occurs in the central courtyard, it becomes clear a killer lurks among them.

With the snowstorm sealing everyone in and a murderer hunting fresh victims, Aldo’s search for the truth proves deadlier than he could ever have imagined . . .

Shadow of Madness is the sixth Cesare Aldo mystery by D. V. Bishop, preceded by Carnival of Lies, A Divine Fury, City of Vengeance, The Darkest Sin and Ritual of Fire.

Shadow of Madness is the sixth book in the very excellent Cesare Aldo series whose praises I’v been singing for over a year now on this little corner of the internet. And I’m lucky the publisher keeps giving me access to any upcoming ARC – even if I fail to write my review in a timely manner 😅 Btw, if you are an audiobook listener, I very highly recommend you check this series out, as the narrator is doing a great job with it!

But back to the book at hand. Shadow of Madness takes place about half a year after the events in Carnival of Lies, in which Aldo learns a certain secret about his past. His search for answers leads him to the Ospedale de’ Pazzi, where the criminally insane are kept by monks and nuns. But where Aldo goes, crime also follows and as it happens, he not only gets stuck there with Saul, but people start dying as well, and of course, it falls on him to investigate. I’m not going to talk about the plot in detail, you have to read the book for that, but I can tell you that there some delicious turn of events I loved reading. I did some things coming, not so much others. But for me, reading mystery books, half the fun is trying to figure out where the story is going and being right about it, and half the fun is to be caught unaware by something. Shadow of Madness had both of that aspect for me, which is one of the reasons I enjoy Bishop’s writing so damn much. Aside the insane (pun totally intended) amount of research he puts into these books.

In Shadow of Madness, we get to meet a whole new set of characters, bar some familiar faces. We have Aldo of course who is accompanied by Saul – I was so happy when I learned about this, because I wanted to see more of their relationship -, and we also have two nuns whom Aldo met in The Darkest Sin. There is going to be one other familiar name to those who read the previous books in the series, but that’s one spoiler I’ll keep to myself. That said, you don’t necessarily have to read the previous books to be able to follow the events here, but it would help for context. Among the new characters there is the abbot and the monks below him, three guards, and a few other nuns as well as the male and female inmates. All rounded out, well written characters, including the inmates, who didn’t get a lot of spotlight, but when they did, they definitely stole the scenes. I kind of missed having such a clear standout character as the Contessa Coltello in previous books, though. That said, we still had enough intrigue and secrets to go with.

My only teeny tiny complaint about Shadow of Madness is that we didn’t get nearly enough of Aldo and Saul together, which I really hoped for. But that’s just my personal preference, otherwise, I’ve nothing to complain about. Bishop continues to awe me with this series, and I keep finding it hard to put these these books down. And the good news is, if the ending is any indication, we’ll get Strocchi back next time and I couldn’t be more excited! The downside? I have to wait 2 years for the next book, and I need to have a word with whoever made this decision. Whatever the fuck am I going to do with myself until then?!