Fast-paced and it would help if you brushed up on Italian political history especially at WWII's end. Absorbing read all the same.

Abbastanza noioso, poco coinvolgente. L'ambientazione, che dovrebbe essere il punto di forza, rimane in parte anonima e talvolta un po' forzata. ( )

provvi vedi nota privata ( )

A slim but substantial novel from one of Italy's most popular crime writers (the other being [author:Andrea Camilleri]). Lucarelli, who writes extensively for television, moves the plot along with all the usual cliches of the genre - a tired washed-up detective, a fiery woman who is either a victim or the culprit etc - but manages to save the day by convincing characterisation, and innovation.

The innovation is in the setting. Just as [author:Leonardo Sciasia] managed to convey the essence of the mafia through a detective novel, in his elegant [book:Day of the Owl], so Lucarelli manages to meditate on perhaps the most troubling period of recent Italian history, when the rump Republic of Salo continued Mussolini's fascism after the allied invasion.

Lucarelli's detective, De Luca, represents order, but it's a tainted order that is near to collapse as the allies advance. What sense has it to investigate a crime under such circumstances? That's the question that is posed by Lucarelli. ( )

http://tantoslivrostaopoucotempo.blogspot.pt/2012/09/opiniao-carte-blanche.html ( )