An Italian detective who brings his โcase to a solution out of Agatha Christie as satisfying as it is unexpectedโ is โa memorable companion in crimeโ (Kirkus Reviews).
Six months after being exiled from his beloved Rome, Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone has settled into a routine in the cold, quiet, chronically backward alpine town of Aosta: an espresso at home, breakfast in the piazza, and a morning joint in his office.
A little self-medication helps Rocco deal with the morons that almost exclusively comprise the local force. Especially on a day like today. Itโs his girlfriendโs birthday (if you could call her that; in his mind, Roccoโs only faithful to his late wife), he has no giftโand heโs about to stumble upon a corpse.
It begins when a maid reports a burglary in Aosta. But thereโs no sign of forced entry, and after Rocco picks the lock, he notices something off about the carefully ransacked rooms. Thatโs when he finds the body: a woman, the maidโs employer, left hanging after a grisly suicide. Or is it? Roccoโs intuition tells him the scene has been staged. In other words, itโs murderโa pain in the ass of the highest order.
In this stylish international mystery, Antonio Manzini further establishes Rocco Schiavone as one of the most acerbic, complicated, and entertaining antiheroes crime fiction has seen in years.
โEntertaining...Readers will look forward to seeing more of this fascinating and complex character.โ โPublishers Weekly
โManzini delivers a wonderful mix of in-depth characterization with an ever-deepening plot.โ โBooklist
โOnce I started reading, I couldnโt stop.โ โVenerdรฌ di Repubblica