The Bologna Vendetta

by Tom Benjamin

When Daniel Leicester goes after his late wife's missing bicycle in the oppressive heat of a Bologna summer, he is transported to her final days a decade earlier. As unfinished business bleeds - quite literally - into the present, Daniel begins to suspect Lucia's accidental death may not have been an accident after all.

With characters ranging from the Bologna branch of Italy's Free and Acknowledged Masons to an activist group trashing AirBnBs, Tom Benjamin takes the reader on another colourful excursion to one of Italy's most mysterious locations as the English detective and his partner Dolores Pugliese go after the truth, and a trace of justice, in a changing city.

304 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 14, 2024

About the author

Tom began his career as a reporter in north London before becoming a spokesman for Scotland Yard where he was a frequent visitor, for strictly professional reasons, to its famed Black Museum. He went on to work in international aid and public health before moving to Bologna with his Italian wife. Tom's first job in Bologna as a doorman at a homeless canteen exposed him to an Italy less travelled and helped inspire his debut A Quiet Death In Italy.

Reviews

[Stephen the Bookworm]

A complex story with lots of twists and turns

3.5 out of 5

The sixth in the Daniel Leicester series set in Bologna.

A solid investigative read - this time involving the death of Daniel’s wife from the past.

The story moves between present day and the period leading to her death.

Property developers, Airbnb protests and Masonic groups weave a complex story .

Personally, read the series in order for best impact/ awareness of the characters and the interactions.

The plot is well constructed but somehow it lacked the credibility in the plotting of previous books

Still a great series.

[Ray Hartjen]

I've read all the Daniel Leicester books, I think, and I've liked all of them. Except this one.

I found this one, the sixth in Benjamin's series, to be difficult to read. There are time shifts through out, and while they take place in different seasons and the tense is different, I still found it confusing, particularly at the beginning of the book.

Part of that confusion is my fault, I suppose. I read this book as I was unwinding each night, going to bed, and thus only read in 30- to 45-minute stretches. Maybe this book would flow better over a long, multi-hour flight?

Then, of course, there's Benjamin's proper Queen's English that makes ready, well, just a big different. And, lastly, there's the editing, where character A might be quoted and then, on the same line, character B is described. As it's all on one line, I was often confused as to the reaction to the quote. Was it the reaction of the person just quoted, or was it another character's reaction?

All that confusion, in my mind, as the reader, leads me to give this book a 3. A good effort, but I struggled too much through it. Ambitious project, what with involving the main character's deceased wife, but one that fell short of my expectations.

[Peter Fleming]

As a device to draw the reader in, a bicycle is an unusual one, albeit in this case done so in a clever, creative piece of writing. Daniel Leicester is a private detective and the bike belonged to his dead wife Lucia, a character always there in the series but without a voice of her own. Until now.

This is a two-timeline novel full of conflicts and contrasts. The current time is set in the height of a stifling summer where many of the more affluent residents of Bologna have decamped for the summer sojourn to holiday homes or to travel. The historical one is set eight years previous in the middle of winter, with snow all around. In a nice little touch to keep track, the chapters are headed with either a sun or a snowflake, so the reader always has his grip of the time.

The past centres upon Lucia using her legal expertise in support of residents who claim the brownfield area their housing development is located upon hasn’t been properly decontaminated. They put forward the high incidence of cancer as evidence in support of their claim. We get to see the strong forthright Lucia fighting their corner with intelligence and determination. There is also the softer, compassionate and caring side of her, allowing the reader to see the woman Daniel fell in love with. This Daniel is a less sure one, making little progress with the language and consequently struggling to find employment and a purpose. Has he made a big mistake? Tentative steps are taken when the Comandante (his father-in-law) announces that they need help at a canteen for down-and-outs and he has put Daniel in the frame. The canteen is sponsored by a Masonic lodge, and this job leads to an unlikely friendship Alfonso Lambertini, the Master of the lodge. Life is starting to find a happy level, when Lucia is killer in a road accident.

The thread set in the current time is themed around the hollowing out of modern cities that become tourist destinations. The plethora of hotels, holiday lets and AirBnBs making property too expensive for the locals leading to protests across several cities in Europe. In Bologna squatters have set up a collective to Reclaim Bologna and Daniel and Delores’ search for be bicycle leads their paths to cross. After two bloody deaths and a couple of run ins with Commissario Rita Miranda, Daniel and the Comandante finally uncover new information about Lucia’s death.

This is a story of corruption of the past, both political and financial, with it roots in urban regeneration, of the kind that occurs the world over. Here family machinations and Freemason are added to an already potent mix of score settling and revenge, resulting in a finale few could envisage. This produces a situation of moral ambiguity that is swiftly dealt with and brings a degree of finality or closure.

Bologna is a brilliant backdrop for fiction and the author brings out a sense of the medieval city the way only a resident can do. As you read about it you become enveloped, feeling as much as imagining. This is especially so with the description of Lambertini’s palazzo, a grand, opulent building falling into disrepair and gradually crumbling away with an almost decadent grace. There are also secret rooms and tunnels to contend with. Any gothic feel is tempered by the pigeons nesting in the chandeliers rather than ravens.

The characters are wonderful and engaging. Lucia becoming whole and finally getting a voice is the most striking aspect, but I must confess a great fondness for Commissiario Miranda, as ever inscrutable behind a cigarette.

The pacing is about right; the story progresses along nicely but within the prose there are opportunities to capture the vibrancy of life all around. Although tourism is a central plank to the story, this is about their way of life for the locals, in city facing change.

A wonderfully atmospheric crime thriller that captures the essence of life in Italy and the corruption beneath the surface.

[Lynsey]

‘The Bologna Vendetta’ is the sixth book in this brilliant series and is packed full of intrigue and tension. This is actually an excellent place to dive into the series for a new reader as it shows Daniel and his family as they first come to Italy. I do recommend the whole series but this can certainly be read as a stand-alone.

Whilst Daniel is tailing a woman suspected of adultery he sees his wife’s bicycle chained up. The thing is Lucia died on that bike and it went missing that day. Daniel ends up chasing the bike through Bologna as the rider makes his escape and they end up at student housing. Daniel and Dolores his assistant end up in a tangled weave of anti-tourist activism, freemasonry and the stunning revelation that Lucia may have been murdered.

The story is told over two timelines and weather has been used to differentiate the two - the past is bitter cold and the present is a sweltering August. As a dedicated reader of this series it was very satisfying to find out more about Dan and his wife Lucia and getting to relive her final days. This was a complicated and multilayered plot and at times it did get a tad confusing. I would have preferred a longer book to enable the ending to be teased out slightly slower and with more details.

This was an engaging and compelling read, with the dual timelines really building up the intrigue and tension. I flew through it in a few days and was thoroughly hooked. I’m looking for the next in the series.

Let me know if you pick this one up!

[Judith Cranswick]

I loved the previous 5 novels. Tom Benjamin is one of my favourite novelists but this was a disaster.
Difficult to follow - The time changes were annoying and I only worked out the meaning of the symbols at the start of each chapter at the very end.
Where were all the wonderful characters in the family that I make the other novels so fasinating?
A big, big disappointment.

[Judie]

The Bologna Vendetta is the sixth in the Daniel Leicester series and the only one I had difficulty with. The time line was confusing - I had trouble keeping the stories straight. Other than that it's a good read - just not quite as good as the other five.

[lee adams]

I’ve liked all this series but I think it was the best so far - complex wide ranging and had a central mission it had more depth than the others