The Second Life of Inspector Canessa

Annibale Canessa #1

by Roberto Perrone, Hamish Goslow (Translator)

Annibale Canessa was a legend: the most notorious cop during Italy’s brutal Years of Lead, he hunted down terrorist suspects with unmatched ferocity. But then the fighting stopped, and suddenly Canessa was a soldier without a war.

30 years later and he’s settled into a life of calm by the sea – until some shattering news pulls him back in. His estranged brother has been found dead; lying beside him, the body of an ex-terrorist, a man Canessa himself caught.

Returning to Milan, Canessa finds the rules of the game have changed: alliances have shifted and brute force won’t cut it anymore. Trusting no-one, he launches an investigation into dense networks of corruption that will bring him right back to his own past.

Genres: Fiction, Crime, Italy, Thriller, Mystery, Noir

413 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Annibale Canessa, fifty-three years old, was living the good life in San Fruttuso, near the Ligurian Riviera. The beautiful small village was only accessible by boat or on foot. Annibale and his aunt owned and ran one of San Fruttuso's three restaurants. He had an old wound on his left side, a reminder of his former life as Lt. Colonel Canessa of the Carabinieri. He kept a "safe haven" to live in outside Rapallo, part of the "Canessa Network" of old friends, or people who owed him their life or that of someone they loved. People owed him favors...he was a problem fixer.

Ivan Repetto, retired First Marshall of the Carabinieri, had been Canessa's partner for seven years. He had shadowed him everywhere, was his right hand man and his conscience. The lives of two former Carabinieri, now living simply, would be uprooted. Men would shadow them, they in turn, would stalk and follow others, revisiting the turmoil of the 1970's known as Years of Lead.

Pino Petri was a paroled, ex-killer. He studied faces as a survival mechanism. He yearned for anonymity. "He would start living again once he sorted out this one last thing". Pino requested a visit from his old friend, Napoleone Canessa, someone he hadn't seen in thirty years. Napoleone wondered why Pino was seeking him out. He would never find out. Pino Petri, one of Italy's most famous terrorists, was gunned down while Napoleone was fatally injured in an attempt to shield him from the shooters.

Brothers Annibale and Napoleone were estranged. While Annibale had become a policeman, Napoleone sided with the rebellion and the radical left. "Napoleone, I see everything you do as a form of rebellion...I want to stop chasing after you, rescuing you, protecting you. From today onwards, to each his own". That was then. This is now. Why did Petri call Napoleone after thirty years and request a meeting in Milan? Did his brother have any enemies?

"Anyone who kills so brutally has some horrendous thing to hide from their past-and something big to defend here, now: money, power, reputation". Someone was waiting and watching for them. They knew that Petri had called my brother-worried he'd say something...". Annibale Canessa "was born suspicious- it was in his DNA-...on high-alert, trusting no one". Now as Lt. Colonel Canessa he had to again don his soldier's uniform. He asked First Marshall Repetto to "help from the back benches with the logistics".

"The Second Life of Inspector Canessa" by Roberto Perrone is a riveting, gritty Italian crime thriller. There is murder, intimidation, extortion, sassy ladies and revenge. Fans of noir fiction will be captivated!
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Thank you Pushkin Press/Walter Presents and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

So boring and cliche and misogynistic

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasingly twisty and cynical Italian crime thriller, in which many of the main characters are also incongruously super horny.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 4 out of 5]

From British tv and in the U.S. accessible through amazon prime, Walter Presents is a streaming service in which Walter Iuzzolin personally curates the material from sources around the world and oversees the translated product. I liked his introduction of this current venture into published translated books, The Mystery of Henry Pick, and this is the second in the series.

Grittier, funnier, and extremely noir-ish, The Second Life of Inspector Canessa takes place in Milan, unearthing the past and revealing the effects of the past on present day Italy. Beautifully written, intricately plotted. The lengthy beginning in which many characters are introduced may be slow, but stick with it. It's worth the time.

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the past several years, I have made an effort to expand my horizons beyond the traditional boundaries of English and American mysteries/thrillers/espionage/noir stories. And Italy has turned out to be a rich source of excellent novels – the Italian authors seem to understand that not everything is black and white, that there are many shades of gray in this world. Between the rise of fascism in the 1930s, the anti-government terrorists of the 1970s, and even the organized crime throughout, there’s plenty of material out there as background for great storytelling.

“The Second Life of Inspector Canessa” by Roberto Perrone mines this territory to great effect. What a fantastic book. It starts out with many snapshots of different people – a bit confusing, but necessary for what follows. And what follows is a double murder – an old terrorist (whom Canessa captured many years ago) out on parole, along with another questionable character, who happens to be the estranged brother of the titular Inspector Canessa, now retired and running a restaurant with his aunt.

But one must avenge family, and Canessa starts out to try to solve who and why his brother was killed. And his underlying fear - was his brother simply a means to get to Canessa? This time he no longer has the power of the state behind him, just his trusty sidekick and those who owe him favors. Along for the ride is the required love interest, a journalist looking to break the big story.

Mr. Perrone does a great job delving into 1970s history when necessary, for a lot of the current action has deep roots in the past. He manages to keep the stories easy enough to follow while providing a rich tapestry that all weaves together. And that’s what really sets this novel apart – the characters, and all of their wonderful shades of gray. The backstories, the decisions, the attempts to do the right thing – no one is all good or all bad, you can understand the various viewpoints.

Being Italian, the sex scenes are a bit naughtier than usual, along with the violence being a bit more graphic. And the politics can get a bit confusing, although the author does a good job explaining what was going on. Overall an exciting, interesting, dynamic book. I look forward to hopefully many more adventures with ex-Inspector Canessa.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Pushkin Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

[Malcolm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute belter of a book. Could not put it down and finished it in 24 hours. Action packed and very thoughtful. This reminded me of Leonardo Sciascia and many of the events referred to as back story will be recognisable to readers of his book The Moro Affair.

I hope to see more books by Roberto Perrone translated into English, and it would be a crime if this isn’t turned into a film.

[Melisende · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it!

I am really getting into crime /detective / thriller / noir fiction set outside of the standard locations of the UK and USA. And this one by Perrone is no exception to the great books I have been reading.

The synopsis covers it all: retired cop returns to avenge the killing of his estranged brother and work out the link with acts of terrorism from thirty years previous, and hence the back and forth with the timeline.

We are introduced to a number of characters early on, and it is only as we slowly progress, does their relevance to the narrative become apparent (I kept a list to keep track!). Many of these are not nice folks - and that is the aim of the author, I think, to provide varying shades of good and bad (and some downright evil), with which to demonstrate the blurred lines and vagaries of what is right and what is just. Even Canessa himself reminds me of "Dirty Harry" - a no-nonsense, ultimately good guy, who believes that if you shake the tree hard enough, the rotten fruit will eventually fall.

As I mentioned, I loved it. For me, it had all the required elements: crime, mystery, passion, power, corruption, secrets, revenge, intriguing characters, action, resolution.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Poppy @pushkinpress and @walterpresents for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The second book in the Walter Presents library. Firstly I love the style of the covers on this set of books. I knew I’d be in for a treat. What a delightfully dark noir crime thriller!. What’s interesting with this one is that it’s been translated (very well) from Italian. It always adds another element if a book has been written in another language first.

I was rooting for Canessa all the way through on this tale of revenge. He was definitely the traditional gritty detective. The characters were very stereotypical but hey that’s what you expect with noir.

[Georgia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purtroppo ho fatto l'errore di leggere prima il secondo e poi il primo libro, quindi ho fatto un po' fatica. Con questa lettura mi sono chiarita un po' di cose dell'altra. L'ho letto tutto d'un fiato, l'ho trovato avvincente e appassionante. Solo l'inizio è stato un po' lento perché c'è la presentazione di una serie di personaggi che inizialmente sembrano scollegati tra loro.

[Aravind · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first taste of Italian Crime fiction certainly won’t be the last! Roberto Perrone’s The Second Life of Inspector Canessa, ably translated by Hamish Goslow, is a highly entertaining crime-action thriller set in the early third millennium with strong connections to the turbulent 1970s.

Annibale Canessa—termed as a cross between Rambo and Terminator by an admirer—is a national hero who played a stellar role in ending the terrorism during the political turmoil of the seventies, known as Years of Lead. Almost thirty years after his early retirement, he lives in a popular tourist spot helping his aunt run a restaurant. His idyll is rudely interrupted when his estranged younger brother is brutally murdered in Milan alongside an ex-terrorist from the past whom Canessa had captured in 1984. Now, Canessa has to come out of his retirement and track down his innocent brother’s killers, and unearth the connection between his brother and his companion-in-death. The enemies he faces now are far different from the ones he had faced during his fighting days—they are people with power, ready to kill anyone just to keep the secrets buried. In this fight, Canessa is helped by his assistant from the old days, some people who owe him favours, and a number of admirers in awe of his past heroics.

The narrative switches back and forth in time and is gripping in the way the mystery unfolds bit by bit. Canessa, in spite of his age, gets to seduce women half his age. Not only he, but several other characters of similar age enjoy the carnal pleasures—mostly with far younger partners—a lot, too. Perrone’s characters come in all shades of grey, and it is fascinating to watch them in action. The descriptions of places, persons and the violent action are vivid. Perrone paints an authentic picture of Milan in its various garbs, though I don’t know enough to comment. Being uneducated about the Italian politics and its recent history, and without any idea about the various law enforcement agencies of Italy, I had some trouble in grasping the plot initially and had to reread several portions. But, once the action got up and running, the reading became easier and the pages started to fly.

To sum up, The Second Life of Inspector Canessa is a perfect blend of action, mystery, sex (a bit more than necessary, in my opinion) and good old crime that is sure to entertain fans of crime fiction irrespective of their nationality, and I would rate it 4.5 out of 5 stars!

I reviewed an ARC of this book for netgalley.com. Here's the link to the original review https://www.netgalley.com/book/206574...

[miss.mesmerized mesmerized · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been decades since Annibale Canessa and his brother Napoleone have last talked. Now, the later has been killed, together with Giuseppe Petri, former member of the Camorra and serial killer. Annibale quit his job as Carabiniere after his biggest success because it was obvious to him that he could only get one fish at the time, but police as well as jurisdiction were full of people collaborating with the mafia and far from providing justice. But now, he has to act since it is obvious that the murder of his brother will not be cleared up by official institutions. Together with his former colleagues, Canessa goes on a mission which is bloody and which will stir up dirt. A lot of things have changed since the 70s and 80s when Italy was in the hands of the criminal organisations, but unluckily not all.

Roberto Perrone is an Italian journalist and writer who amongst other wrote the biography pf Gianluigi Buffin, the famous goalkeeper. “The Second Life of Inspector Canessa” is the first instalment of the Annibale Canessa series which strongly reminded me of the “Mani Pulite” investigations of the 1990s when masses of crimes of industry leaders and politicians were exposed and the corrupt system uncovered resulting in the end of the Prima Repubblica.

Annibale has to start his investigation from scratch, neither has he an idea why his brother was killed or why he was together with the former camorrista nor does he dispose of any means to investigate. He only has his sharp mind, two loyal former colleagues and Carla, a journalist not only eager to collaborate but also attractive. They uncover several leads which do not add up, more people die and also the small group is attacked. Quite obviously, nobody wants them to dig deeper, not the police, not the jurisdiction, not the mafia. But Annibale has not only lost his brother, he has strong conviction which he follows.

A complex and suspenseful thriller which is totally entertaining but also disillusioning – it does not take much to imagine that all this could be true.

[Alan M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of the numerous foreign TV series that Walter Presents brings us, and I really enjoyed the first pick in this unique collaboration between Pushkin Press and WP, so I eagerly anticipated getting stuck into this - but I ended up skimming pages and being, well, pretty bored.

It's classic Walter Presents material, so I can see why it was chosen: an ex-cop drawn home because of a family tragedy; secrets and corruption; a determined journalist doing everything for a scoop.... But that was the problem - it was so familiar, so routine, so formulaic that I had no interest in the characters or what happened to them.

Maybe it's just me, and I hope that others get more out of this than I did, because I applaud the intention behind the publication of this. I'm afraid it just didn't grab me, and at 400 pages that's a whole lot of words to get through when you're not really engaged with the story. Not awful, but 2.5 rounded up to 3 (just).

[Mandy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me, this one. A story of crime, corruption, terrorism and murder in Italy, with all the tropes of such a crime novel, a run-of-the-mill plodding narrative with all the twists and turns you might expect – gangsters, police, killings, violence, shootings, all very tedious. Perhaps if you like this sort of thing, then you might enjoy it. But I don’t and I didn’t.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. I bought this book as it was the second 'Walter Presents' book selection and I'd really enjoyed the first: 'The Mystery of Henry Pick' (recommended). What I got was a fairly standard thriller, nothing really out of the ordinary and, at times, verging on the creepy, with its fascination for old men having sex with beautiful young women. Odd.

[ao · Rating 2 out of 5]

E' un po' un polpettone, con quell'eroe con le macchie giuste e una manciata di luoghi comuni. Comunque, un fondo di verità in quello scenario dell'amministrazione della giustizia ci sarà, purtroppo.

[Sue F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pushkin Press has made a bit of a business translating foreign-language mysteries into English and I tend to enjoy reading mysteries written from an international point of view. So I was happy to receive an advance reading copy of The Second Life of Inspector Canessa, which is a noir-ish thriller set in modern-day Italy, but with lots of flashbacks to Italy’s terrorist problems during its “Years of Lead” in the latter half of the 20th century.

I am not a fan of books that start out bouncing around amongst a bunch of prologue-style vignettes, where we don’t really know what is going on. And so I almost faltered and didn’t finish this book. But I am glad I persisted, because maybe 10 or 15 percent of the way in, it felt as if the author suddenly changed gears, the storyline became more coherent, and I found myself, almost without realizing it, immersed in the story. And that story turned out to be a nice blend of thriller-ish action (guns, fast cars, safe houses) and solid investigative work (tracking down clues in a newspaper’s archives, tracing a victim’s daily route to work looking for clues).

The main protagonist, Inspector Canessa of the title, is a satisfying hero. He has a rather violent past as a hero of the anti-terrorism efforts during the Years of Lead, although we do find out that even then, not everything was quite as it seemed. He has since left the Carabinieri, and after attending university, is now working with his aunt in her seaside restaurant, when he finds out about the assassination of his estranged brother. And that brother has been murdered in a way which leaves clues linking the murder to Canessa’s own past. And thus begins Canessa’s second life…

In addition to liking Inspector Canessa, I also especially liked Perrone’s characterizations of some of the truculent citizens who stymy various government officials and Italy’s notorious bureaucracy, such as the widow who lives across the street (you’ll know who I mean when you get there). Sadly, however, I was less fond of what I saw as a lot of gratuitous sex in the story. I don’t mind having some sex in a story if it furthers the story line, or if it helps develop a character, but I felt this went well beyond that. I even found myself skipping forward in some places, much as I do in a romance novel, when I feel as if the sex is getting in the way of the story. YMMV, of course!

All-in-all, I would have given this book five stars, if it weren’t for the slow start, and the gratuitous sex, which bumped it down to a four star read for me. Four stars is a solid recommendation from me, though, since I save five stars for maybe one in thirty or forty books that I read. And I will happily read more books from Roberto Perrone, if Pushkin Press translates more – I just may start 10% of the way in, and skip the sex scenes…

Oh yeah, and my thanks again to Pushkin Press, and Edelweiss for the advance reading copy.

[James Lawther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roberto Perrone tells a boisterous tale of assassination, torture, corruption, fast cars and unsolved crimes. In stereotypical Italian style, it has plenty of gastronomic and carnal pleasures thrown in for good measure. Inspector Canessa and his companions are all-action, Italian senior citizens. At sixty-plus years old, they are a curious amalgamation of James Bond and the characters in The Last of the Summer Wine. Yet, for all its foolishness, this is an entertaining and sophisticated read.

The action oscillates between the present day and the turmoil of the “Years of Lead”. The period of the late 70s and early 80s when revolutionary activists terrorised the Italian State. Perrone harnesses terrorist atrocities from the past to explain current-day twists in his plot. (The raid on a terrorist cell in via Gaeta was modeled on the events on via Fracchia in 1980. Perrone was studying close by at the time at the University in Genoa.)

Perrone laces together a cast of characters with differing motivations and desires. They unite to deliver an engaging, and in many ways credible, tale of revenge and concealment. The characters are eminently believable, from the terrorist who picks at his toenails to the feisty old widow who witnesses a setup.

Action, adventure, revenge, guns, sex and Italian food. What is not to like? As one reviewer said, it would be a crime if this novel isn’t made into a movie.

“What is not to like” is easy to explain. The novel is full of powerful old men bedding women who could be their daughters or granddaughters. This could be taken in one of three ways:

1. It is a misogynistic rant by a dirty old man.
2. It is an accurate representation of Italian machismo, I suspect Silvio Berlusconi has had his fair share of illicit affairs.
3. It is a tongue-in-cheek fantasy and Roberto Perrone was smiling wistfully whilst he wrote it.

I went for option three, but I guess you’d have to be Italian to know the answer, which is part of the allure of the book. I am with the critic, I want to see the movie.

Read a little more here: https://crimebooks.uk/book/inspector-...

[Jubing · Rating 4 out of 5]

SPOILER ALERT⚠️⚠️
I couldn’t put this down. The ping-ponging between dates and POVs was confusing at first but once you got into the flow, it was a very enjoyable, layered and rich storyline.
Overall, I liked it a lot and would read the remainder of the series.

The main cause of my irritation was the nauseating (and frankly comical) machismo. Canessa is painted as this linear, grey monomaniacal pillar of unresolved childhood trauma but is somehow also very successful with women? Women over 30 barely exist in the novel and those under quiver in excitement at the possibility of putting out for man who carries an “air of danger about him.” All the stereotypes joined the same party.
There is a lot of fantasising about teenage girls and students by men who are unfailingly fat, ugly and rich. The politicians and police all seem to have endless slush funds to buy their endless string of teenage lovers apartments and cars.
Women and young girls seem desperate to jump into sex even after very serious incidents like Carla just after the murder of the hacker. Carolina jumped very quickly from “this is the teddy bear you gave me” to Canessa’s bed, which is the lolita fantasy for the 268463922th time. Salemme too was taking breaks with his student in New York right in the thick of them getting discovered and Calandro right in the most stressful parts of the plot. It’s just implausible and egregious.

Second, there were some unresolved issues with the conclusion.
Everyone around Petri created the impression that he was a man of principle, and so why would he (who recorded the entire interaction in the restaurant and uncovered the true motivation for the hit) do it anyway? And in such an “uncharacteristic” way in front of Lazzarini’s kids? This is a glaring issue. If he taped them to trap them, they they were well and trapped. Why go through with it?

[Anto · Rating 4 out of 5]

E' stata una piacevole scoperta questo Annibale Canessa. E' stata una lettura piacevole e Perrone si è dimostrato un abile narratore e creatore di storie. Storie gialle che a mio parere hanno un senso e sono ben strutturate: non è sempre scontato anzi, spesso e volentieri i romanzi di questo tipo rischiano di avere una trama un po' debole, poco credibile, inverosimile. E banalotta. Qui invece Perrone ha creato una trama alquanto intrigante e mi ha tenuta inchiodata al libro. Canessa è simpatico, un ex carabiniere ormai 60enne che ora si dedica alla ristorazione e quindi paiono lontani i giorni alla lotta al terrorismo. Ma la vita si sa, ha mille sorprese proprio quando meno te lo aspetti e "carrarmato Canessa" si troverà a dover tornare nuovamente in azione. Sessantenne sì, ma ancora in piena forma e, a quanto pare, ancora molto affascinante; ancora agile e combattivo... Chi lo ammazza Canessa? Forse, in certe situazioni il personaggio risulta un poco caricato, le donne tutte - o quasi - lo vogliono, anche quelle molto più giovani, e il trascorrere del tempo pare non averlo minimamente scalfito, salta, scappa, si nasconde, spara come un rambo de noialtri. Ma tutto questo non incide sulla riuscita del personaggio e della storia. Tanto è vero che ho già pronto sul mio kindle il secondo (e al momento ultimo) episodio di Annibale Canessa.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, with its superhero subject, who is a retired colonel in Italy's Carabinieri paramilitary police. Inspector Canessa, the scourge of the Red Brigades in the late 1970s and early 1980s, comes out of retirement when his estranged brother is shot to death in a mob-style hit near Milan's Centrale railway station.

The plot unfolds layer by layer, with a host of prominent persons who could be behind the murder, but with no clear motive for it. Canessa is the perfect hero for such a thriller – clever, brave, ethical, very handy with firearms, and no slouch in the romance department. Such a character is too good to be true, but once the reader gets past that, the book turns into a rollicking good read.

Don't expect a literary novel, but you will get a hell of a detective story.

[Patrick Viale · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. Coming from an Italian background and familiar with both Liguria and Milan where it is set, I thought it would be the ideal book for a holiday read but having struggled through more than 250 pages I felt I could take no more. The labyrinthine plot line jumping from terrorist cells of the 1980s to the political corruption of the present day and the interminable list of colonels, generals, marshals, secret servicemen, with the occasional sadistic hitman thrown into the mix, made the whole thing feel too much like homework. It was not helped either by the stodgy, heavy handed translation. I got to the stage where I really didn't care what happened to Inspector Canessa or to any of the other characters. I understand that this is the first of a series about the Inspector….I will definitely not be reading the sequels.

[Neil Challis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Translated from the original Italian-Part of the Walter Presents series.
Retired Inspector Canessa is a National Hero fro arresting terrorist from the Red Brigade-comes out of retirement as his brother is killed alongside a known Gang killer and wants to know why,he put the killer away and didn't think his brother had anything to do with him,maybe the killers were after the inspector.He returns with a couple of helpers from his old job with the Carabineri .Lots of sex and killings happen (written in the 1970s) much more than English crime of the time.Comes up against corrupt officials judges and prosecutors who were with him in his previous exploits but now he doubts their motives.
Fast paced and full of action,like an Italian James Bond.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, which I came across by accident in a bookstore this week. There is a lot I did not know about the Years of Lead in Italy and the Red Brigades in the 1970s. Of course, corrupt politicians are a breed in every country, but it seems as though there is something special about the Italian variety. Anyway, there is a lot of violent death and middle-aged male sex fantasy, but all very enjoyable because the characters are interesting as individuals in their own right. I hope more books by this author will be translated into English, because I want to read them.

[Simonetta Michelotti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years of lead and Clean Hands, the Italian history of the 70s and 90s seems to have something in common. The trait d'union in this book (in real life, too?) is the judiciary, for better or for worse. And of course the Secret Services in the background. The plot is terrifyingly truthful... Trust who has lived through both the Years of lead and Clean Hands!

[Louise Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a mystery with a difference. Everything about it is a bit set apart from the norm - from the incredibly vivid Italian setting to the way in which the author switches the various timeframes as the plot progresses. I loved that it is set in Italy and really loved getting to know the characters, who are so well developed as to seem real.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably more of a 2.5. I liked the plot but it was a bit of a slog at times and could have done with being about 80 pages shorter. I suspect that the author is the same age as his protagonist and it is wish fulfillment that he has two considerably younger and very attractive young women finding him irresistable.

[Carrot95x · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It was gifted to me by my partner and I took my time reading it. The one downside I would say is that I found there to be a lot of characters and I lost track at points. However, this is a thoroughly enjoyable read. A strong 4/5.

[Dave Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Different to usual crime thriller books I've read. Pleasant to read a translated Itslian story. It's hard to give it 5* as much as anything be cause it's so Italian, which is what makes it so good, but that makes it hard to compare.

Would thoroughly recommend if you want variety in writing style.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this Italian detective/crime novel with its expansive cast altho it took me awhile to get into it as I had to keep rereading to keep all the characters straight. Intriguing tale of corruption and betrayals with a satisfying ending.

[AVid_D · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whilst I rather liked the conspiracy elements of this story, the unrelenting sexual objectification of just about every female character and the crass sex scenes made this a far less enjoyable read than it might otherwise have been.