David Hewson is a contemporary British author of mystery novels. His series of mysteries, featuring police officers in Rome, led by the young detective and art lover Nic Costa, began with A Season for the Dead, has now been contracted to run to at least nine instalments by British, American, European and Asian publishers. The author's debut novel, Shanghai Thunder, was published by Robert Hale, in the United Kingdom, in 1986. Almost all copies of the book were sent to libraries, and has been re-issued. His second book was set in Spain during Holy Week and won the W H Smith Fresh Talent prize for one of the best first novels of 1996. Its film adaptation, released in 2002, was also titled Semana santa. Apart from that he has written a number of standalone novels, including Lucifer's Shadow and The Promised Land, and as well the second chapter of the audio serial novel The Chopin Manuscript started by Jeffery Deaver, with Lee Child and 13 other co-writers, for the audiobook site Audible.com. In June 2011 it was announced Hewson will write the novels based upon the first two series of the Danish TV series The Killing.