i loved this,i generally like any book set in italy as it is one of my favourite places and florence in particular.this book is well written and as the writer was a cop i have to assume his descriptions of the police investigation are accurate ( )

"The Death of a Mafia Don" (DMD), 4 1/2 stars, is the third in a series of six books by Italian Michele Giuttari about Michele Ferrara, a Florence based police officer. Ferrara is seriously injured in a car bombing, and while he is recovering, his team investigates the incident and soon discovers a Mafia connection. There is soon another assassination attempt but on another official, and this one is successful bringing more pressure on the team and Ferrara out of the hospital. At this point, the focus shifts to a horde of Mafia characters (you might want to take notes on names and places). The pace and tension are good, and the characters are well drawn, but I must admit it got a bit confusing for me as there were a number of twists and a number of agendas. But I am presuming that was the author's intention - to give the reader a sense of the investigator's frustrations in trying to get a clear picture of events. Then there was a scene that made me think I was watching a clip from the tail end of "The Godfather" (not that there's anything wrong with that, actually it was rather well done). This is my first Giuttari book and I will read others - perhaps books 4, 5, 6 for starters since I've jumped into the middle of the series and know some character history. Close to 5 stars but no cigar. ( )

Decent plot and and first hand knowledge of subject matter does not hide the fact that author simply cannot write. It makes 'Da Vinchi Code' a high literature masterpiece. ( )

Poor - despite an interesting plot line. Maybe it's the translation, but somehow it feels more like the original text was just never that good. Not helped by some bizarre Italian police procedures, that again feel more like poor writing, rather than shoddy policing. However I'm not familiar enough with Italian culture to determine which is the cause.

Although this is apparently the third of a series, it is readable enough as a standalone - and I doubt the deficiencies are owing to my unfamiliarity with the rest of the characters. There was no indication anywhere on the cover, frontispiece or rear blurb that this was a continuation of a series. Fortunately LT highlights these things for you.

The story opens sometime shortly after 11th Sept 2001 with the lead detective of the never explained Squadra Mobile travelling to work, and only through chance avoiding being severely injured by a car bomb. It would have been useful at some point in the story to know exactly what SM's remit and limitations are. Maybe it is a standard Italian Police squad somewhat akin to the Flying Squad, or maybe it's a more dedicated anti-Mafia investigative unit - native may well know, but it would have been useful if the translator had included some notes. There are immediately a few key theories - it’s a new terrorist outrage and Ferrara is involved by chance, or it is a more deliberately targeted attack in revenge for Ferrara's previous work (presumably the earlier novels in the series) in jailing a Mafia mastermind. A confusing mish-mash of different agencies try and stake their turf depending on which agenda they prefer. Given that all the characters seem to have similar names and voices this gets very confusing - and worse the narrative jumps over several voices without much warning.

Each character seems very similar, and this isn't helped by the telling of the plot rather than showing. There were also a lot of similar names - Ferrara And Feraghi plus some other Fs and several As. Given that there is a whole alphabet to choose from I much prefer the characters to have visually different names. One of many lazy shortcuts the author employed.

Police procedures were another very lazy shortcut. The police seemed to rely exclusively on phone intercepts. Something they were granted powers to employ without restriction and without any requirement for evidence. Maybe that is how Italian policing proceeds, but it came across as very intrusive. Fortunately for the plot the bad guys (bar one) were too thick to realise that the police do this. In the Real World this is not always the case. Conveniently just when the bad guys had hidden something underground the Inspector had a bright idea to use Ground Penetrating Radar to check. My what a co-incidence. The entire plot works along similar lines of deductive (un)brilliance.

In much of a similar vein the prosecutors (all female) seem to actively take part in the investigations, sit in on interviews and direct the police actions. Again I'm not sure how Italian justice plays out in the real world - but this seems to be unlikely. Whilst in a work of fiction one expects a certain amount to be made up, the instances where Real World can be deviated from should be kept to a minimum.

Overall the only good point was the inventiveness of the author - the basic plot was quite clever and given some detailed characters, a bit of decent interaction and writing, something quite good could have been made of it. This doesn’t even qualify as beach reading though. Not recommended to anyone. ( )

In this novel detective superintendent Ferrara is the victim of a bomb planted in a car. There are alternative explanations to account for this event, which are explored in the first part of the book, while Ferrara lies in hospital. A second explosion with a new victim prompts Ferrara to leave the hospital and take charge of the investigation. It is then that the story begins to take shape. The first part of the novel lacks a clear focus, introduces too many characters and possible lines of investigation. Towards the second half of the book everything begins to take a clear shape and it ends in a satisfactory manner. Although the book is more complex than the previous ones, the plot is lost at times due to the introduction of too many characters and unnecessary details. Overall a less enjoyable novel than the rest of the series. ( )