Ascension by Gregory Dowling

Ascension by Gregory Dowling

When a young tour guide, Alvise Marangon, offers to help an English Grand Tourist, little does he know that it will lead to his being embroiled in blackmail and conspiracy. To add to his woes, he is then forcibly recruited into the city's powerful secret service to investigate a murder case. A reluctant spy he may be, but he is a gifted one.

Amidst the world of gambling dens and courtesans, something momentous is being planned for the Feast of the Ascension, Venice's most important and spectacular holiday, and it seems that only Alvise can prevent the day turning into bloody mayhem.

Gregory Dowling grew up in Bristol, England, where he attended a local grammar school. He read English at Christ Church, Oxford and obtained a First Class Degree in 1978. From 1979 to 1981 he taught in language schools in Naples, Siena and Verona. In 1981 he moved to Venice, where he has lived ever since. Since 1985 he has worked at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, where he is now Associate Professor of American Literature. In addition to his novels (five thrillers), he has done numerous translations from Italian into English, has co-edited two anthologies of poetry, written a book on American narrative poetry, a book on the English verb system and a guidebook to Byron's Venice, as well as numerous scholarly articles on British and American literature. He is editor of the British section of the Italian poetry-journal Semicerchio. For many years he wrote and regularly updated the sightseeing pages of the Time Out Guide to Venice.

He is the author of several novels, including Ascension.