Florence. Summer, 1538. A night patrol finds a wealthy merchant hanged and set ablaze in the city's main square.
More than mere murder, this killing is intended to put the fear of God into Florence. Forty years earlier, puritanical monk Girolamo Savonarola was executed the same way. Does this new killing mean his fanatical disciples are reviving the monk's regime of holy terror?
Cesare Aldo is busy hunting thieves in the Tuscan countryside, leaving Constable Carlo Strocchi to investigate the killing.
When another merchant is burned alive in public, the rich start fleeing to their country estates. But the Tuscan hills can also be dangerous. Growing religious fervour and a scorching heatwave drives the city ever closer to madness.
Meanwhile, someone is stalking those powerful men who forged lifelong bonds in the dark days of Savonarola. Unless Aldo and Strocchi work together, all of Florence will be consumed by an inferno of death and destruction. Ritual of Fire is the third Cesare Aldo mystery, preceded by City of Vengeance and The Darkest Sin.
