Corrupted by Lisa Scottoline

This legal-romance stars an interesting Italian-American protagonist, Benedetta (Bennie) Rosato.  Bennie is a lawyer in Philadelphia.  She is also six foot tall, in her 40s, with a blond curly mop of hair, blue eyes, and a non-girly-girl character.

She was fully six feet tall, which came in handy in a courtroom, if less on a date.

Bennie remains the focus of the book, and we learn much about her past, her present, her desires, her interests, and what she thinks of herself, with her self-deprecating humor taking a fore.

Bennie wished she were better in the maternal department, but she didn't get a lot of practice, unless you counted golden retrievers.

The first paragraph of Corrupted sets a hard-boiled tone, with the only exception to that genre being it is not a first-person narrative.

Bennie Rosato hadn't taken a murder case in years, but she'd have to take this one.  She'd been working late when the call came in, from a time she didn't want to remember and a place she didn't want to revisit.  Still, she'd said yes.  She couldn't assign the case to an associate, either.  Nobody paid her debts but her.  And she wanted redemption.

The hard-boiled style does not persist however.  The third-person limited narration does, from Bennie's perspective, and we remain firmly there.  There is lots of local Philly color and excellent quality writing, if you ignore the sentence fragments created by popular punctuation misuse, in this well-plotted novel.

I thought the main characters were presented well, believably, and they felt realistic.  We meet them almost always exclusively through dialog, with very little description of setting and action, almost in third-person objective (dramatic) style.  I did think that the love interest was a bit too perfect physically, reminding me of a Harlequin novel.

Corrupted expertly starts with the set-up, the premise for the book, and introduces the protagonist.  Then Part One begins, going back to 2002, to present the backstory.  Part of that backstory is a love affair for Bennie.  The original case takes up the first half of the book.

Part Two brings the reader back to the present, which includes an investigation of the present case, and a confrontation for Bennie with her former love. 

Part Three is the trial, and that will please fans of courtroom dramas, especially when the case is resolved in real Perry Mason style through an unusual cross-examination. 

The denouement sets the stage for more interesting personal stories for Benedetta (Bennie) Rosato in books to come.

A warning:  the bulk of the story is gritty, rough and sad.  The reader learns much about juvenile justice system in Corrupted, and it is indeed corrupt.  The very depressing aspects of child law and the damage it can do to child development are central to what the author set out to write, as she explains in her Afterword to Corrupted. 

She wanted to write, as she always does in her books:

"...about the intersection of justice and law"

But this book looked for inspiration to a real-life tragedy that grew out of greed and a lack of working consciences, that the author wanted to highlight so it would never happen again.  She set out to write a:

"moving and instructive novel"

Corrupted is moving and instructive, and very much based in Philly law, the setting for the story and the real-life crimes.

The lighter moments in the book are often with the staff at the law firm, who are described briefly for those who have not read the other books in the series.  For example, here is the description of Bennie's legal partner:

"Mary DiNunzio was proverbially short and sweet, a South-Philly Italian-American, with a tendency toward co-dependency."

Bennie's dry observations of life around her, and life in general, add humor too.

"...she couldn't remember the last time she'd been picked up in a bar with antlers."

"Life was an individual sport."

The protagonist's Italian-American heritage does not shine through, which could be because her upbringing was anything but typical of Italian-Americans, as we learn during the course of the book.

Corrupted is Book 3 in the Rosato & DiNunzio series, which is a spin-off series from the author's 11 book Rosato & Associates series.  The two law firms provide the main cast of the stories, with each book featuring one female lawyer as the protagonist. 

A legal case sets off the story that then follows the trail through court sessions, brainstorming sessions, investigations, confrontations which are sometimes thrilling and sometimes not, family or personal angst, and the courtroom ending.

I believe that the publisher does a disservice to this writer by promoting her books as something they are not and with unnecessary hyperbole, leaving quite a few readers disappointed when the book doesn't meet the expectations the marketers' created with their promotional texts.

What the author is not, is a Grisham or Turow clone.  Those two legal thriller writers' books are firmly male-perspective, even when they have supposedly female protagonists. 

If you purchase Lisa Scottoline's books with a clear head, knowing that you are getting legal romance/family novels, with some suspense, written from a female perspective for female readers, then you have a good chance of enjoying the books. 

Here are the three books in the Rosato & DiNunzio series with their misleading, and at times off-putting, hyperbolic descriptions, oh, and beware of the various covers, that might lead you to purchase the same book twice!

 

Rosato & Di Nunzio Book 1 - Accused

ACCUSED is the first legal thriller in New York Times bestseller Lisa Scottoline's Rosato & DiNunzio series.

Fiona Gardner was murdered six years ago in what appeared to be an open-and-shut case. The man condemned pleaded guilty. But Fiona's sister, Allegra, is convinced he is innocent.

As Allegra turns to the lawyers at Rosato & Associates, newly promoted partner Mary DiNunzio knows Allegra's parents are against revisiting the case. And only the foolhardy would dare to go up against the one of the most powerful families in the country.

But the women at Rosato & Associates can't resist an underdog.

It will take a team of utterly unstoppable lawyers, plus the help of a thirteen-year-old genius, to discover if justice really was served all those years ago...

Lisa Scottoline revolutionized crime fiction when she introduced her all-female law firm, Rosato & Associates. Now Bennie Rosato, Mary DiNunzio, Judy Carrier, and Anne Murphy are back with all cylinders firing in this fabulous new spin-off series.

Rosato & Di Nunzio Book 2 - Betrayed

Hot on the heels of ACCUSED, BETRAYED is the second legal thriller in New York Times bestseller Lisa Scottoline's electrifying Rosato & Di Nunzio series.

Judy Carrier has always been a champion of the underdog. When her Aunt's beloved friend Iris Juarez is found murdered, and a cache of dirty money is discovered, Judy and her Aunt know there must be more to it. No one was harder working or more loyal than Iris.

Their quest for justice takes them into a shadowy world of people who are so desperate that they cannot go to the police - and where others are so ruthless, they're counting on that vulnerability. As Judy digs deeper into the investigation, she knows she must do whatever it takes to help the betrayed...

Lisa Scottoline revolutionised crime fiction when she introduced her all-female law firm, Rosato & Associates. Now Bennie Rosato, Mary DiNunzio, Judy Carrier, and Anne Murphy are back with all cylinders firing in this fabulous new spin-off series.

Rosato & Di Nunzio Book 3 - Corrupted

Hot on the heels of ACCUSED and BETRAYED, CORRUPTED is the third legal thriller in New York Times bestseller Lisa Scottoline's electrifying Rosato & Di Nunzio series.

Bennie Rosato the founder of the Rosato & DiNunzio law firm hides her big heart beneath her tough-as-nails exterior and she doesn't like to fail. Now, a case from her past shows her how differently things might have turned out.

Thirteen years ago, Bennie Rosato took on Jason Leftavick, a twelve-year-old boy who was sent to a juvenile detention center after fighting a class bully. Bennie couldn't free Jason, and to this day it's the case that haunts her. Jason has grown up in and out of juvenile prison, and his adulthood hasn't been any easier.

Bennie no longer represents those accused of murder, but when Jason is indicted for killing the same bully he fought with as a kid, she sees no choice but to represent him. She doesn't know whether or not to believe his claims of innocence, but she knows she owes him for past failures-of the law, of the juvenile justice system, and of herself.

Forced to relive the darkest period of her life, Bennie will do everything in her power to get the truth, and justice.

If you want to read another book with Benedetta (Bennie) Rosato as the protagonist, you'll really have to choose carefully from the author's books, since she features different women from the law firm in each book.  To help you out, I've done the research for you.  Here are the protagonists of all the books in the Rosato & Associates series and the Rosato & DiNunzio series.

Rosato & DiNunzio

1. Accused (Mary DiNunzio)
2. Betrayed (Judy Carrier)
3. Corrupted (Bennie Rosato)

Rosato & Associates

1. Everywhere That Mary Went (Mary DiNunzio)
2. Legal Tender (Bennie Rosato)
3. Rough Justice (Marta Richter)
4. Mistaken Identity (Bennie Rosato)
5. Moment of Truth (Mary DiNunzio)
6. The Vendetta Defense (Judy Carrier)
7. Courting Trouble (Anne Murphy)
8. Dead Ringer (Bennie Rosato)
9. Killer Smile (Mary DiNunzio)
10. Lady Killer (Mary DiNunzio)
11. Think Twice (Bennie Rosato)

You can visit the author's website where there is lots of information on the author's website for book clubs.  And here is a link to a chatty interview the Lisa Scottoline and her daughter who is often her co-author.

Model Murder (Alicia Allen Investigates) by Celia Conrad

A Model Murder is the first in a trio of books about Alicia Allen, an Anglo-Italian lawyer based in London, England.  The books are British from the first word, "Strewth" (an exclamation), through to the end of the third book.  Anglo/Italophiles will enjoy these books the most, and if you happen to be a lawyer (or solicitor or barrister), you should enjoy them even more. 

The author calls the books "cosy-legals" or "legal-novels".  These are not the "cute-cozies" that have taken the U.S. by storm lately.  These are old-fashioned, British cosies that ask you to sit back, relax, and live vicariously through the protagonist, as she lets you into her life, in the first-person, and introduces you to her friends, family, colleagues, and all her adventures.

The London location is strong in the books, with street names, districts, restaurants, cafes and clubs mentioned.  This may appeal to Londoners, and Anglophiles.

Alicia Allen's mother is Italian, so the text is sprinkled with Italian words when the bilingual Alicia speaks with her sister, her Italian mother, and some Italian friends.  Alicia's character is shaped by her dual heritage.  That is why I am reviewing the book(s) here, on this blog. 

Hyphenated Alicia is closer to her family than hyphenated Italians might be if they live in the U.S., Canada, or Australia, since England is not so far from Italy, allowing for regular visits to her Italian relations.  Alicia also behaves much like an Italian, dedicating lots of time to her social life, and in staying close to her wide group of friends.

Alicia's mother may ring a few bells for hyphenated Italian readers everywhere.  Here is her mother's first words after not seeing her daughter for while:

My goodness carina mia, you are so thin.  You do not eat enough.  Mangia, mangia, mangia!

The characters in A Model Murder are diverse.  Right away, we start to meet the various suspect characters who may end up victim or killer, and certainly suspects.  If you are like me, and you like your books to be a surprise, then avoid the book descriptions, since they include many spoilers, plot elements, that are more fun to discover on your own.

This British cosy is rougher than an American cozy would be.  The nature of the murder, and the misogyny of many of the men in the book, is harsh and revolting.  There are also probably more details than American readers are used to in their cozies, which have been pared down over the years to the bare essentials.

This book is full of details that are not there in relation to the mystery, but are there purely to create a scene or an atmosphere.  Americans may find the pace slow, and the abundance of phone conversations unusual, and the lack of commas jolting.  The story itself is not artificially condensed, as many American books like to do.  The story in A Model Murder takes place, realistically, over quite a few months. 

These are not criticisms.  I am just pointing these things out so American readers understand that this is a British novel, written to different standards than mass-market American novels.

We see inside the life of a young lawyer, through Alicia's story. The author is also a lawyer, when she is not writing, so I'm assuming the legal details are accurate.  Through Alicia, a very good listener, we get inside the lives of some of her clients, too, and inside the lives of many of the people she deals with every day. 

I had to smile when I read in  A Model Murder Alicia mentioning Garibaldi Biscuits (cookies).  The cookies were named in honor of Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian General who united Italy through his military campaigns in the 1680s.  Britain's "Garibaldis" are a continual reminder of his once worldwide fame.

This wouldn't be a cozy without a potential love interest.  In Alicia's case, her matter-of-fact legal style of narration makes a fun contrast to her budding relationship.

We stood there for a moment and I thought he was going to kiss me but the moment passed and we carried on walking.  I admit to feeling disappointed.  Despite my protestations to Kim that he was not my type I was very much attracted to him.

The romantic story arcs over the three books, with a conclusion in the third book.

In America, Giuseppe Garibaldi was a brand of Macaroni

There are three books in the Alicia Allen Investigates series (trilogy).  Here are the book descriptions.  Beware of spoilers!  And I'll start with the book's trailer.

A Model Murder

This first book in the Alicia Allen Investigates Trilogy introduces Alicia Allen, a 29-year-old London Anglo-Italian lawyer whose desire for Pringles is matched only by her desire to solve crime. When her neighbor—a beautiful aspiring Australian model—is found raped and murdered before she can pick up her first paycheck at a sleazy “hostess” club, Alicia ignites with such passion to bring the wrongdoer to justice, it would make even Portia envious.

As her dangerous quest draws her into the dark world of exploitative “hostess clubs,” Alicia finds herself facing similar circumstances in a new law firm where alpha males roam the halls in solicitor suits intimidating or stalking undervalued female coworkers. Worse luck, the deeper she delves into the investigation, the more her comfortable world falls apart. Friends are viciously attacked...potential lovers may not be what they seem...clues pop up in Italian opera, Shakespeare, and a cat.

Alicia finds her willingness to risk her own life for the sake of justice is sorely put to the test in a world where Fate plays no small role.

Wilful Murder

The second mystery in the Alicia Allen Investigates trilogy lures the justice-loving solicitor out of London and into the shadowy depths of the Land Down Under where nothing is what it seems and a risky Trust could lead to murder.

Alicia's quest takes her to Australia - coinciding with an Australian friend's wedding in Brisbane where Alicia's old flame Alex Waterford has also been invited. Alex, a London lawyer now working in Singapore for a British firm, confesses his love for Alicia, but events conspire to make the pursuit of justice more important than personal desires, and the duo join forces to solve the crimes. Putting questions of love on the back burner, they put their own lives on the line as they search for the answer to the murderous mystery that lies just beneath the misleadingly placid surfaces of Probate, Wills and a Trust.

Murder in Hand

Alicia Allen - the London solicitor with such a passion for justice, it would make even Portia envious - returns to star in this novel set in London and Italy. Also on board is Alicia's love interest and fellow solicitor, Alex Waterford, who is as willing as she is to take on the Mafia in this tangled mystery of corruption on both sides of the law.

The case brings to the surface our heroine's Italian heritage and willingness to take on dark forces to bring about justice; but in her bid to entrap the perpetrators, has Alicia taken on malevolent forces too great, and will this be her last investigation?

(Reviewed on this site.)

Alicia's favorite food, called by the brand name Pringles in the books, called "Crisps" in Britain, and Potato Chips in America

Here are direct links to the books at Amazon.com:

Please visit the author's website, her Facebook page, and join her on Twitter.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Involuntary Witness by Gianrico Carofiglio

Involuntary Witness is the first book in a series featuring Italian trial lawyer Guido Guerrieri, who lives in Bari, Italy.  The book is a translation from the original Italian into British English, at least my copy of the book was in British English.

The author, Gianrico Carofiglio, is a former Italian judge, so the legal aspects of his novels are very accurate, and are interesting in their own right due to the complexity of the Italian Justice System, which the author explains clearly for the reader.

 

Guerrieri spends a lot of time walking around Bari, in squares like this one

The book has a first-person narration by the protagonist, forty-year-old civil and criminal trial lawyer Guido Guerrieri, who recounts the events that make up his mid-life crisis, including the lost-cause court case that contributes to his redemptive recovery.

Involuntary Witness is divided into three parts:

1. Part One:  Guerrieri, frail, passive and timid, suffers a personal crisis which becomes the trigger for his mid-life crisis/depression
2. Part Two:  Guerrieri stumbles into a difficult legal case that requires strength, assertiveness and courage, triggering his slow recovery and personal growth
3. Part Three:  Guerrieri courageously commits himself to defending his client to the difficult end, finally becoming a Guido Guerrieri he can admire

 

Bari's boats and harbor and nearby beaches are also settings in the book

The book begins with the end of Guerrieri's marriage.  His self-loathing and subconscious desire for punishment, combined with his passive-aggressive nature, made him hurt the person who loved him, thus destroying his marriage.

Eventually Guerrieri hits bottom, but he continues working as a lawyer during this whole difficult period.  The author describes a very realistic walking-wounded, functioning-depressive:

When I was obliged to receive clients the situation was surreal.  The clients talked.  I paid no attention whatever, but I nodded.  They talked on, reassured.  At the end I shook them by the hand with an understanding smile. ...

The clients were satisfied and I, at the best of times, had only a vague notion of the problem.  Together we proceeded on our way towards catastrophe.

Guerrieri vacations in friends' trulli, the traditional Puglian homes that are now tourist apartments

Reading about another person's depression can be depressing, but that is not the case in Involuntary Witness.  The author has filled his protagonist with a wicked sense of humor, which makes the book very entertaining.  The humor is at times cynical gallows humor, at other times silly witticisms.  There are lots of self-deprecating jabs, and jabs at others, and the humor is rounded off by situational humor.  Kudos to the author who convincingly depicts Guerrieri's long recovery.

Here is recovering Guerrieri arriving at the apartment door of a rare date:

...when I knocked at Margherita's door two flights above I must still have been wearing a rather stupid smile.

"What's up?" she asked after saying hello, narrowing her eyes in puzzlement.

"Nothing, it's just that I nearly fell on the stairs, and since I'm a bit of a loony anyway I found it amusing.  But don't worry, I'm harmless."

Dialog is often embedded in the narration, reminiscent of J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye.  Involuntary Witness is an account supposedly written by the narrator a bit after the events have concluded, and they are recounted with hindsight and dry wit, also reminiscent of Caulfield.

If you have read any John Grisham novels, you might recognize the pattern of the down-and-out lawyer wracked by self-loathing who redeems himself by winning an impossible case for a just cause.  Or perhaps the comparison is more apt to Paul Newman's alcoholic lawyer in the film The Verdict.  The trial in Involuntary Witness begins at the halfway point.

The lawyer redeemed by a case; great film!

Are you a Nick Hornby fan, author of the novels High Fidelity and About a Boy?  If you are, you might recognize the spoiled, self-indulgent man-boy protagonist who suffers a crisis that pushes him to mature out of his prolonged puberty into full manhood.

There are times that the writing in Involuntary Witness takes on the hard-boiled style of Dashiell Hammett's first-person private detective novels, whose most famous creation is iconic P.I. Sam Spade.  Here is Guerrieri describing his first date since his marital separation:

Melissa arrived punctually a few minutes after eight.  She was on foot and her attire was an incitement to crime.

 

 

Dashiell Hammett, if you are a former smoker, stay away from Involuntary Witness.  The narrator is constantly puffing on a cigarette.

The previous paragraphs were a test.  If you tired of the multiple cultural references then you might want to stay clear of the Guido Guerrieri novels.  They are full of such references, including song lyrics and quotes from many books and films.

The protagonist of Involuntary Witness, Guido Guerrieri, is a confirmed bibliophile.  Here is Guerrieri talking about his book therapy:

I was in a bookshop at about half-past two in the afternoon, may favourite time.  There's never anyone around, one can listen to music and, with no people there, even catch the odour of fresh paper.

 

Guerrieri's favorite therapy

Did I enjoy reading Involuntary Witness?  Yes, I did, mainly because of the Italian cultural setting and because of the humor in the book.  The first-person narration worked well, too, letting us into the mind of the protagonist, no matter how awkward it was at times.  Personally, I found his strong attraction to masculine women a bit odd, but to each his own, and it fit with Guerrieri's passivity.  And the frequent petty references to people's weight were out of place.

However, there were times when I had flashes of other books or films pop into my head, suggesting there was some borrowing going on that wasn't necessarily credited.  And knowing the torture that a passive-aggressive can inflict, I found it difficult to feel much sympathy for Guerrieri.  For the same reason, I found ridiculous the suggestion that one conversation at the end of the book (which we are not privy to) with his ex-wife could take away all the pain Guerrieri's behavior caused her.

Lastly, I think the book could have been better if the central legal case had been resolved completely; but I will leave it at that, to avoid spoilers.  

These are the books in the series so far:

1. Involuntary Witness
2. A Walk in the Dark
3. Reasonable Doubts
4. Temporary Perfections

Never been to Bari?  Here is a two minute video postcard of the city that is the setting for Involuntary Witness:

The Guido Guerrieri books are published in English by BitterLemon Press, which boast a roster of "The best crime & romans noirs from faraway places".

Our books are entertaining and gripping crime fiction that expose the darker side of foreign places. They explore what lies just beneath the surface of the bustling life of countries such as Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, India, Iraq, New Zealand, Australia, and the USA.

Direct link to author's page at BLP

Here are direct links to Involuntary Witness at Amazon.com, both the e-book and paperback editions:

Here are direct links at Amazon.com to all of the Guido Guerrieri books, both the e-book and paperback editions:

Visit the author's website.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

A Florentine Death by Michele Guittari

A Florentine Death is the first book in the Michele Ferrara Police Procedural Series, a set in Florence, Italy.  The protagonist, Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara, is the head of Florence's Squadra Mobile, a serious-crime investigative unit.  The series is translated from the original Italian into British English (at least, my copy of the book was in British English).

Michele Ferrara is a lucky man:  he has an apartment on the River Arno with a garden terrace overlooking the Ponte Vecchio, the old bridge that crosses the river that cuts Florence in half.  I'm assuming that this is a case of artistic license, and not a hint that Ferrara is on the take.  Florence is an expensive city!  That apartment would have cost a fortune!

If you are a Florence fan, and who isn't, you will enjoy the specific streets and buildings that are mentioned throughout A Florentine Death.  There is a very strong sense of place in the book.  Here is the author on Florence:

A strange city, Florence, he reflected.  One of the most beautiful, most beloved cities in the world, steeped in history and full of art treasures, it offers itself to visitors like a generous courtesan.  But if on the one hand it flaunts itself, on the other it shuts itself up behind the heavy doors of its palatial houses, jealously guarding a privacy that has to remain inviolable, and leaving us to wonder what is concealed within those walls, what memories of past plots and betrayals.

Depictions of the Italian character are exceptionally strong in the book since it is written by an Italian about Italians, and originally written for an Italian audience.  My favorite "Italian" touch is when a heated police interrogation is interrupted for an espresso break at the request of the man being interrogated, and with the gratitude of the policemen who admit they need an espresso, too. 

Here is a comment about a young police driver:

He couldn't have been more than twenty, was new to the job and unaware that, in a situation like this, such behaviour was, unfortunately, only to be expected.  By way of compensation, he drove as if he were at the wheel of a Ferrari at Monza.  Like all drivers, he insisted on showing off his skills.

The details about the police investigations are accurate, thanks to the author being a former head of Florence's Squadra Mobile.  Michele Guittari is a controversial figure, so I will leave that part of his life alone, and concentrate on his second life as a novelist.  The author has said that Ferrara is an idealized version of himself.

We expertly meet Ferrara in the first few pages of the novel, and then we move on to meet his wife (German, like in the TV series La Piovra), best friend (an Italian Casanova like in the Montalbano series), and police team members (all male like most Italian police teams).  We learn about Ferrara's past, too, which turns out to be very important to the story.  Ferrara is a realist, a workaholic, a very professional and competent leader, and he is perceptive about people.

The writing style is very traditional, with separate strands following the killer and the police, until the moment the two strands combine near the end of the book.  Be forewarned that some readers might not enjoy the slow style of this classic police procedural.

The story is divided into three parts:

1. A Long Strange Day in Florence, October 1, 1999
2. A Series of Murders, Florence [Dec.] 1999-2000 [3/4 of the book]
3. The Hunt

The narration is in the third-person-limited, usually from Ferrara's mindset.  However, like the English author David Hewson, whose style I think is similar to Guittari's, we are put into the mind of the very sick killer, too.  We are also treated to sex scenes, usually disturbing sex scenes, also similar to David Hewson's books.

Sometimes I found the time jumps a bit confusing because they were not always clearly indicated either by a time indication, which the author likes to use since his character is rather obsessed with time, nor with a line space, which is usually the way to indicate a time jump.  Not all the time jumps are linear; sometimes the jumps go back in time.

There are lovely parts of A Florentine Death that let us get into the head of a real policeman:

"There's never time to concentrate on one thing, there's always something else to do.  But we don't give up.  Unsolved cases should never be closed.  They should always stay with you, somewhere at the back of your mind.  Sometimes a clue turns up out of nowhere after months or years, and you'd  better be ready to grab it when it does.  And anyway, the city is sorry he died, even if it doesn't know it.  It's important to remember that deep down, Florence is scared.  Because whatever you think of the case, there's still a killer at large."

The most realistic aspect of A Florentine Death, for me, was the spread out time-frame of the story.  The policemen are busy with other cases, so their attention is strained.  Lots of people have to do very specialized jobs to collect the evidence at the crime scene.  Forensic examinations take time, so the detectives have to be patient.  The close work with judges (investigating magistrates) takes time and patience, since their schedules are overloaded, too.

Negatives about A Florentine Death are not really negative, but observations about things I did not particularly enjoy.  First, I felt that the story was very male dominated, with the female characters shallowly or stereotypically drawn and suffocated in a macho society.  Second, the plot centers around homosexuality, which in Italian society seems quite behind-the-times compared to my understanding and upbringing.

These are the books in the Michele Ferrara Police Procedural Series published in English:

1. A Florentine Death
2. A Death in Tuscany (I've read this one, too, and found the pedophilia content repulsive.)
3. The Death of a Mafia Don
4. The Black Rose of Florence
5. A Death in Calabria
6. The Dark Heart of Florence

From the book's description:

Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara knows that the beautiful surface of his adopted city, Florence, hides dark undercurrents.  When called in to investigate a series of brutal and apparently random murders, his intuition is confirmed.  Distrusted by his superiors and pilloried by the media, Ferrara finds time running out as the questions pile up.

Is there a connection between the murders and the threatening letters he has received?  Are his old enemies, the Calabrian Mafia, involved?  And what part is played by a beautiful young woman facing a heart-rending decision, a priest troubled by a secret from his past, and an American journalist fascinated by the darker side of life?

Ferrara confronts the murky underbelly of Florence in an investigation that will put not only his career but also his life on the line.

Here is a two minute video postcard of Florence, in case you've never been there, and wish to see the setting of the book, A Florentine Death:

Here are direct links to A Florentine Death at Amazon.com:

Here are direct links to all the books in the series to-date at Amazon.com:

Visit the author's website.  

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Murder in Hand by Celia Conrad

This suspense novel, Murder in Hand, is for cozy enthusiasts!  I love cozy-murder-mysteries, but I have found that those who don't like them tend to actually loath them.  So, only true fans should take up this book.  It is a classic murder mystery with suspense elements, with the added element of legal expertise from the English solicitor amateur detective, Alicia Allen.

The Alicia Allen Investigations series is up to three books.  This is the third book in the series that features Anglo-Italian, London-based Alicia Allen, and it is the first book that brings Alicia to Italy, in and around Lucca, for the last fifth of the novel.

1. A Model Murder (reviewed on this site)
2. Wilful Murder
3. Murder in Hand

I requested a review-copy of this novel because I like the idea of a hyphenated Italian amateur detective, especially because she is not Italian-American but Anglo-Italian, making the series unique.  The series gives Italophile cozy-fans a look into the world of a young English woman whose life is enriched by her Italian mother's culture. 

London, England, is not physically far from Italy, but it is culturally light-years away.  Alicia has grown up spending her summers in Italy, and speaking Italian with her mother and sister at home.  She loves Italian food, great coffee, red wine, her close family, and the community she creates around her with neighbors and co-workers.  She also loves Pringles potato chips!  That must be the English side of her.  ;-)

Alicia, the first-person narrator of the novel, says:

I spent most summers in Italy as a child either in Tuscany or at the Amalfi coast.  Although Nonna lives in the Cilento region at the southern end of the Gulf of Salerno, and further down from the Neopolitan Riviera, the Amalfi coast was my father's favourite destination.

If you have read the first two books in the series, you will enjoy catching up with Alicia's friends and family.  If you are new to the series, as I was, you will still be able to understand and enjoy Alicia's relationships, especially with her boyfriend, Alex.  The boyfriend is Alicia's sounding board, a necessity in a cozy novel.  We get to hear Alicia and Alex discuss the case's possibilities, while enjoying their interplay and affection.

Curious about the area that Alicia's client visits, and Alicia knows from her childhood?  Here is a lovely 2 minute video postcard about Positano on the Amalfi coast.

 

The narrative style is heavy on dialog and succinct with description.  This is typical of cozies.  It reminds me of the writing style of Dick Francis, with the inside legal details taking the place of the inside horse-racing details.

Cozies take their time, so if you are fan, you know to savor the setting details, and the meanderings, and the theories, and the relationships.  They are all here, true to the genre, along with multiple murders, investigative trails galore, an exciting ending, and a romantic Epilog.  This is a book I can recommend for Italophiles, Anglophiles, fans of Traditional British Mysteries, and fans of Cozy-Murder-Mysteries.

Here is the trailer for the first book in this series, A Model Murder.

 

From the book's description, which I must warn you, gives quite a bit of the plot away:

If you've read Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, you're going to love crime fiction's latest detective, Alicia Allen; London's delightful Anglo-Italian sleuth with a passion for Pringles... and solving crime.

Through her Uncle Vico, a New York attorney, Alicia Allen, a young London solicitor, is introduced to Fabio Angelino to deal with the Probate of his mother's English estate. Fabio's father once worked with Vico at the New York firm of Scarpetti, Steiglitz & Co., but sixteen years earlier disappeared in Sicily, the Italian police concluding that he was murdered by the Mafia.

After a trip to the Amalfi Coast, Fabio tells Alicia someone has tried to kill him.

[STOP READING HERE TO AVOID SPOILERS!]

When Fabio's sister, Giulia, is found callously murdered, Alicia investigates their father's disappearance, and is convinced that Giulia's research on the Angelino family background in Lucca holds the key to the mystery.

Finding evidence of massive corruption in both London and Italy, Alicia determines to expose the criminals. But in her bid to entrap them, has Alicia taken on malevolent forces too great, and will this be her last investigation?

Murder in Hand is available in paperback and Kindle e-book editions from Amazon.com:

Here are the links to all the books in the series, in both paperback and Kindle editions, at Amazon.com:

You can find a wider selection of e-book formats from the on-line Smashwords site:  epub, pdf, doc, mobi-Kindle...  If you are located outside the U.S., I recommend you purchase you Kindle book via Smashwords to avoid the foreign surcharge Amazon.com tacks on e-books sold to customers outside the U.S.

Direct link to Murder in Hand e-book page

Direct link to Wilful Murder e-book page

Direct link to A Model Murder e-book page

Visit the Alicia Allen Investigations website, and the Alicia Allen Pinterest board, and the author on Facebook.


This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.