Award-winning New Zealand author D. V. Bishop appears in conversation at the Reading Minds Helensburgh Book Festival to discuss his acclaimed Cesare Aldo series of historical thrillers set in Renaissance Florence. The event takes place at The Hill House ahead of the UK publication of Shadow of Madness, the sixth Aldo novel, by Pan Macmillan on 9 July 2026.
Born in Cambridge, New Zealand and raised in Auckland, Bishop emigrated to the UK in 1990 and built a distinguished career in British comics, editing 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine before turning to novels and screenwriting. His Cesare Aldo series has won a remarkable haul of awards: City of Vengeance (2021) won the New Zealand Booklovers Award; The Darkest Sin (2022) won the Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger; Ritual of Fire (2023) won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best New Zealand Crime Novel; and A Divine Fury (2024) was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize, the CWA Historical Dagger and the CWA Gold Dagger.
In Shadow of Madness, investigator Cesare Aldo travels into the hills above Florence seeking answers about his past. The trail leads him to an institution for the criminally insane, where a blizzard traps him and his companion. When a brutal murder occurs, it becomes clear a killer lurks among them.
"Shadow of Madness is a book to savour. With a set-up as pleasing as Murder on the Orient Express, and a gloriously weird and wonderful cast of characters, the story doesn't let up for a single moment." - Waterstones