Summoned to Darkness is a novel of baroque suspense set against the splendor of venice in 1891, during festival season, just as the panama canal scandal is breaking. The 90-year-old recluse giles demaury, patriarch of th...Summoned to Darkness is a novel of baroque suspense set against the splendor of venice in 1891, during festival season, just as the panama canal scandal is breaking. The 90-year-old recluse giles demaury, patriarch of the great international art-dealing and auctioneering demaury family, summons his clan from around the world to gather at his palazzo.