Ascension

This novel is set in Venice in the mid eighteenth century, when the city had lost its political and financial primacy but had become Europe's pleasure capital, famous for its gambling dens, its courtesans, its hectic carnival, its music, art and theatre - and the most highly organised secret service in Europe. The hero-narrator is Alvise Marangon, a Venetian in his early twenties who is unwillingly recruited into the Secret Service and becomes embroiled in a conspiracy to murder the city's leader. Ascension is a well-paced and evocative thriller.

Gregory Dowling grew up in Bristol before studying English at Christ Church, Oxford where he obtained a First Class Degree. He moved to Venice in 1981, where he is Associate Professor of American Literature at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. Gregory has published four novels, co-edited two anthologies of poetry, written various non-fiction books, and academic articles. He is non-fiction editor for the journal Able Muse and editor of the British section of the Italian poetry-journal Semicerchio, and wrote for Time Out Guide to Venice.