Donato Carrisi

Review originally published on my blog, Musings of a Bookish Kitty:
http://www.literaryfeline.com/2017/08/bookish-thoughts-lost-girls-of-rome-by.htm...

The Lost Girls of Rome by Donato Carrisi translated by Howard Curtis
Moholland Books, 2013
Crime Fiction; 432 pgs

Thank you to all who voted for this one in my June TBR List Poll! Like many of you, I was drawn to this one just from the description. The setting helped too.

Sandra Vega is a forensic photographer whose husband, a journalist, dies show more unexpectedly while on assignment in Rome. For all intents and purposes, it appears to have been an accident, but Sandra has her doubts. Doubts that only grow when she travels to Rome to search for the truth.

At the same time, a possible serial killer is found near dead in his home and his latest victim is missing. Marcus, a priest with no recollection of his past, is tasked with finding the missing young woman. Marcus is used to hiding in the shadows. He is a penitenzieri, a part of a secret group of priests who profile the worst criminals, archiving sins.

The novel alternates between the two characters, as well as an unknown third character whose identity and role in the novel isn't initially clear. Usually I find myself favoring one story line over another, but I liked both Sandra and Marcus's stories equally.

The Lost Girls of Rome is a complex, well-written, and thoroughly engaging mystery. It was next to impossible to put down. I never quite knew where Carrisi was taking me as I immersed myself in his characters' lives. I look forward to reading more by Carrissi in the future. show less

A quanto pare, Carrisi dà il suo meglio quando non cerca di convincermi di quante cose brutte-brutte-brutte succedono nel mondo.

La donna dei fiori di carta mi ha ricordato le atmosfere di alcuni libri della Allende, equilibrando un romanzo a sfondo storico con un alone di magia.

Forse l'unico dei suoi libri, finora, che rileggerei.

Marcus is an amnesiac member of a shadowy order of priests that investigate crimes gleaned from the confessions of evil-doers. The Church disapproves of them so he must conduct his activities in secret. Sandra Vega is a crime scene photographer mourning the recent death of her photojournalist husband David. David fell to his death in a deserted building in Rome. So why did his last message to her say that he was in Oslo? Sandra is driven to head to Rome and investigate, encountering Marcus show more in the process, as well as an Interpol agent who knows about David's final days.

The plot thickens with the near-death of a man who is found to be in possession of a momento taken by a serial killer years before; found by the victim's sister, Monica. Monica resists the temptation to take revenge and saves his life. Marcus takes an interest when a connection arises to a missing person case that he is investigating.

There are plenty of clever twists to Carrisi's plot, but I found the book unsatisfying overall. I rate his Mila Vasquez books more highly, because Mila is a more interesting and empathetic protagonist than the somewhat bland and predictable Sandra. The key theme of the plot, the penitenziere was just a whole lot too Dan Brown-y for my taste. Finally, I'm at a loss to understand why the publisher thought this title to be more appropriate than The Court of Souls, which is the direct translation of its original title, and far more apt - the revised title made the book more confusing in my mind - who were these lost girls supposed to be? show less

Don't let the title fool you. Yes, Rome is missing some girls & it's the search for their killer that brings together a disparate set of characters. But this is a book about evil....how we define it & how we react to it.
Say you had a loved on who was murdered & the killer was never caught. You are given the chance to decide their fate. Would you choose justice or revenge? Remain a victim or become an executioner?
This is just one of the thorny issues the characters of this complex novel have show more to wrestle with. It can be read as a straight up thriller but on another level it is a study of human nature, the choices we make & how we rationalize them.
It's a difficult book to summarize for a few reasons & after the first 130 pages or so, I was wishing I'd kept notes. There is a large cast & 5-6 seemingly unrelated plot lines that are set in different frames.
Sandra Vega is a forensic photographer/cop in Milan. Her husband, a journalist, died 5 months ago after falling on a construction site. She's having trouble moving on & hasn't even picked up his belongings from the station. Then she gets a phone call from Schalber, an uber annoying Interpol agent that makes her question everything she thought she knew about her husband's death. After going through his bags, all indications point to Rome as the place she'll find answers.
Marcus is a mysterious man with a gift for reading crime scenes. It's ironic that he can crawl around the mind of a killer because he doesn't even know who he is. After taking a bullet to the brain a while back, he has amnesia. Every night he relives the experience that altered his life & resulted in the death of this friend Devok. Each morning he remembers one additional detail & he wonders what he'll do if he ever recovers the face of the shooter. Will he turn him in or avenge his friend? Pretty weighty stuff, especially if you're a priest.
By day, he works with Clemente, the man who nursed him back to health. They investigate violent crimes that have gone unsolved & as the book opens, they're searching for a missing young woman who may be the latest victim of a serial killer who has evaded police.
There are other related cold cases & they discover a pattern, Someone is contacting people affected by the murders & letting them know who did it, giving them a choice....justice or retribution?
In separate passages throughout the book, we meet a man referred to as "the hunter". His story begins the previous year & as it progresses, we follow him as he searches for a serial killer from Paris to Mexico City, Kiev & finally a small town near Chernobyl. His identity is not revealed 'til the final pages & it's a revelation that throws a completely different spin on the rest of the book.
Each plot line is intriguing in itself but gradually the author begins to weave them all together. The characters cross paths & become involved in the others' search, affecting the outcomes. All of a sudden, you realize each story is part of a bigger picture & some of these people are not who they claim to be. Red herrings run amok & the author uses subtle misdirection that ensures your jaw will drop when twists are revealed. At one point, I thought everything was coming together then noticed I still had half the book to go.
There are many peripheral characters, some in passing, others with larger roles. But the main two are Sandra & Marcus, both of whom will be profoundly affected by what they learn.
I really enjoyed this. I could be picky & say there are moments when you have to suspend your disbelief & minor errors in medical procedures. Also, I found the dialogue a bit stilted in places but this may be due to blips in translation. But it did just what a great thriller should do....kept me turning the pages to see how it all shook out & didn't hand deliver the answers.
The ending left me wanting more of one character in particular & I would definitely pick up a sequel. All in all, an absorbing, intelligent & intricately plotted novel full of suspense & situations that make you think. show less