White Death

Castagnetti #2

by Tobias Jones

Castagnetti, a bee-keeping private detective, is hired by a businessman to find out who set fire to his car and why. It seems like a dead-end case, nothing more than an instance of mindless vandalism. But before long the businessman is receiving threatening phone calls, his factory is burnt to the ground and an employee loses his life.

Castagnetti traces similar cases of arson across the city and realises that this sort of systematic intimidation happens when the owner's land is about to be redesignated as residential. The last person to stand in the developers' way was whacked in Milan a year ago. Castagnetti needs to solve the case before his client, and his city, are both buried in cement.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

290 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2011

About the author

Tobias Jones was on the staff of the London Review of Books and the Independent on Sunday before moving to Parma in 1999. He is a regular contributor for the British and Italian press.

Reviews

[Ann Tonks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have recently read a series of crime noir written by Italian authors, this feels like a US PI story transferred into Italy with a few Italian phrases thrown in to make it appear different. Although the corruption elements all resonate, there is a flatness in town that was rather irritating. Not as good as I'd hoped it to be.

[BillReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Corruption in Italy, intimidation of businessmen to get them to sell their premises cheap before land is re-designated as residential and the price rockets. Two deaths, the first turns out to be revenge by businessman, the second arson results in night watchman being killed, Casta knows the culprits but no concrete evidence

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

White Death moves at a swift pace. The prose is expressive and the characters and scenes well penned. The plot is fairly straightforward, with some nice detail on property politics and deal making, and it has a nice twist, though I found the tension a little underwhelming at times and the ending a little sudden and underdeveloped. A few more pages would have helped to round the story off a little more. Overall, a very readable book and a solid second addition to Jones’ series.

[Tina]

Anna Harland and Sarah Harland is a static and round character. Sarah Harland is nineteen years old, She is in prison. Sarah Harland is in prison because last week at the airport. When they arrived, the police stopped them and looked at the bags . Then they said they were saw drug in sarah bag. The drug were heroin. If the court decided that it was her heroin, then she most die. But she says she did not do it. But she think his boyfriend stephen put inside her bag because they going together.

[Matthew Ogborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tobias moves into the business side of Italian crime with his second Castagnetti case and it pays off handsomely. Casta starts to reveal more about himself and we get to see more of his inner circle. The building scams in Italy are legendary in their brazen nature and the plot captures the murkiness superbly

[Karen Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great Italian crime read.

[Jill Mccann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent Italian crime written with a perceptive appreciation of the nuances of political corruption at all levels of Italian life.

[Desiree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Castagnetti is a bee-keeping PI who is hired to solve some arson incidents. Like most detective novels set in Italy in the end the crimes get solved but the real culprits go unpunished.

[Karen Howell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only finished this book because I hate starting a book and then not finishing it . Uninspiring