From two masters of dark fantasy comes a chilling tale of magic and possession, set in—and beneath—fabulous Venice, a city slowly being swallowed by the very waters that have made it one of the wonders of the world.

Geena Hodge is an American archaeologist working to salvage Venice’s past from the encroaching Adriatic Sea. When she and her lover, Nico, discover the lost library of Petrarch under the Piazza San Marco, they rejoice not only at the historical significance of the find but at the opportunity to bring worldwide attention—and much-needed funding—to their endeavors.

But that find soon leads to another, a room buried more deeply still: the fabled Chamber of Ten, where centuries ago the secret rulers of Venice, in their quest for absolute power, met to plot betrayals and murders. After entering the Chamber, Geena and Nico are thrust into the midst of an ancient feud, a deadly battle of wills and black magic that threatens to poison the city’s future with the evils of its past.

From the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Golden and Lebbon pair up once again for the clumsy third "Hidden Cities" installment (after 2009's The Map of Moments), this time with the sinking city of Venice as the setting. Geena Hodge, a hotshot archaeologist, has traveled abroad with her boyfriend, semi-telepath Nico, and a BBC documentary film crew to find and document the city's ancient architecture before it disappears forever. The discovery of a hidden door inside the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana quickly leads to the uncovering of the Chamber of Ten, a possible meeting place for the Council of Ten, an organization that secretly gained control of Venice in the mid-15th century. What follows is a somewhat rambling account of Hodge's foray into the covert-and magical-history of one of Italy's most renowned cities. Chock-full of tortured prose ("his voice was level, though his eyes were full of questions and mystery") and flat characters, this book will appeal to few other than hardcore fans of the series.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The third book in Golden and Lebbon’s Hidden Cities series is set in Venice, Italy. Professor Geena Hodge is an archaeologist working to recover some of the city’s lost treasures, including Plutarch’s Library. When Geena meets her team—which includes her graduate-student lover, psychic Nico—at the library with a BBC producer in tow, she sees that they’ve uncovered a hidden passage, one that leads to a room that used to be the meeting place of Venice’s famed Council of Ten. When Nico discovers—and shatters—an ancient urn, the chamber floods and a spirit that has been protecting the city for centuries is awakened. Nico is then possessed by Zanco Volpe, a powerful magician who takes Nico all over the city to gather the ingredients needed for a ritual to shield the city from a deadly threat. Worried about her lover, Geena tracks Nico, only to find that the threat Volpe fears has already arrived. Even more exciting than the previous Hidden Cities outing, The Map of Moments (2009), Golden and Lebbon’s latest starts off strong and builds to a thrilling finish. --Kristine Huntley

The Chamber of Ten

Similar The Chamber of Ten