Italian Crime Fiction

Two deaths - the suicide of a recently fired worker and the murder of an unscrupulous businessman - lead Inspector Montalbano to the Halcyon, a mysterious ship that visits Vigàta's port each day. With very few crewmen, no passengers and a stern large enough to land a helicopter, it piques the Inspector's interest straight away. And whilst all this is going on, a rare trip to Genoa to visit Livia ends with the Vigàta police department in disarray, and Inspector Montalbano's position as the head of the commissariat in jeopardy. It will be up to Montalbano to fix the damage done.

Venice, 1752. On a cold December night, a man is found strangled in a dark alley. High magistrate Marco Pisani is tasked with investigating the grisly murder. When two more bodies are discovered, it is clear there is a serial killer on the loose. Helped in his investigation by lawyer Zen, daring gondolier Nani and the cunning Chiara Renier, Pisani is determined to uncover the truth before the murderer strikes again. But to find answers, he must move among the city’s criminal underworld of spies, shady taverns and gambling halls.

Nestled high in the Tuscan hills lies Villa Volpone, home to renowned crime writer Jonah Moore and his creative writing course. It’s also the last place retired DCI Dan Armstrong expected to spend his retirement! Dan’s no writer, but maybe this break will help him to think about the next chapter in his own life story? But only days into the course, Jonah Moore is found stabbed to death with his award-winning silver dagger! And Dan finds himself pulled out of retirement with a killer to catch.

When the body of a radical protestor is found floating in one of Bologna's underground canals, it seems that most of the city is ready to blame the usual suspects: the police. But when private investigator Daniel Leicester, son-in-law to the former chief of police, receives a call from the dead man's lover, he follows a trail that begins in the 1970s and leads all the way to the rotten heart of the present-day political establishment.

Morris Duckworth teaches English to the pampered rich of Verona, and Morris is not pleased. Living a meager existence in a squalid apartment, he regards his privileged students with envy and disdain, first wreaking revenge by petty theft and then, like all good criminals, graduating to grander larceny. When one of those students, a beautiful but vapid heiress named Massimina, falls in love with him, Morris can almost smell upward mobility.

A famous Hollywood director arrives in Bologna to remake a cult film and the city's renown cinema archive decides to mark the occasion with a screening of the original, only to discover it has disappeared. After English detective Daniel Leicester follows the trail of Love Upon a Razorblade to an apparent murder-suicide, he begins to suspect there may be more at stake than missing negatives—could the film contain a clue to one of the city's most enduring mysteries?

A kidnapped child and the burglary of a high-class apartment: Two crimes that seem to have no connection at all until Inspector Lojacono, known as “The Chinaman”, starts to investigate.

When Inspector Montalbano receives an early-morning phone call it proves to be the start of a very trying day. For the caller expects Montalbano to arrive imminently at a rendezvous with some friends. But before he can reply, the caller announces himself as someone called Riccardino and hangs up. Later that day, news comes in of a brutal slaying in broad daylight by an unknown assassin who makes his getaway on a motorbike. And when the Inspector learns of the victim’s identity - a man called Riccardino - his troubles are only just beginning.

On the Day of the Dead, the citizens of Venice make their way to the cemetery island of San Michele to pay their respects to the departed. When an empty coffin is unearthed in the English section of the graveyard, a day of quiet reflection for Nathan Sutherland becomes a journey into the dark past of a noble Venetian family. A British journalist, investigating the events of 40 years previously, disappears. A young tourist - with an unhealthy interest in Venice's abandoned islands- is found drowned in the icy lagoon. A terrible secret is about to be brought to light.

Italy, 1932 - Mussolini's Italy is growing from strength to strength, but at what cost? One bright autumn morning, architect Isabella Berotti sits at a café in the vibrant centre of Bellina when a woman she's never met asks her to watch her 10-year-old daughter, just for a moment. Reluctantly Isabella agrees - and then watches in horror as the woman climbs to the top of the town's clock tower and steps over the edge.

Quando riceve una telefonata dalla sua ex compagna di università Gabby, che la invita a trascorrere il Natale nella sua casa sul lago in una sperduta località della Scozia, Sasha sa che sarebbe meglio non accettare. Dodici anni prima, mentre festeggiava la Vigilia di Natale con le cinque persone a lei più care, era accaduto un fatto orribile che aveva cambiato per sempre la loro amicizia. E da allora Sasha non ne ha più parlato con nessuno.

Montalbano's First Case and Other Stories is a brilliant collection of short stories, personally chosen by Andrea Camilleri, following Inspector Montalbano from his very first case in Vigàta, in which he stumbles upon a young girl lurking outside a courthouse with a pistol in her handbag. When she is taken in for questioning and won't utter a single word, Montalbano must find another way to learn whom she is trying to kill and why.

When Dan Armstrong is asked to provide security at a private villa on the outskirts of Pisa, he’s pretty sure it will be an easy job. Villa Gregory is remote; the gathered guests are rich – what could possibly go wrong? Inside the high walls of the palatial villa, Dan discovers the gathered guests are some of the most powerful tycoons in the media world, with plans for world domination. With so much at stake, Dan redoubles his efforts to keep everyone safe. But when one of the group is found murdered, Dan’s heart sinks – especially considering Anna’s own daughter is in the frame.

It is 1943, and the Nazis control large parts of Italy. Colonel Anselm Bernhardt devotes his attention to stealing Italian art and having his way with Italian women, but there is one great treasure that he covets even more. In present day, his grandson swears to make amends for Bernhardt’s crimes, but he is bitten by the same temptation. When he begins his search for the mysterious treasure in southern Italy, he discovers a secret that can change the course of history.

Ai piedi del Castagno dei cento cavalli, un albero secolare che cresce sulle pendici dell'Etna, due guardie forestali ritrovano il corpo di una donna brutalmente assassinata. La scena del crimine è sconcertante. Per il vicequestore Guarrasi, della Mobile di Catania, l'indagine si presenta subito complessa, se non altro perché sulla vittima non esistono praticamente notizie, quasi non avesse un passato.

Morris Duckworth can't get over Massimina, or Mimi, as he likes to refer to her. But then, he should have thought of that before he kidnapped and killed her. Only now, living in Verona and married to Mimi's sister, does he appreciate how much he misses her and how blindly he has stumbled into a trap of fate. Struggling to adjust to his good fortune, with a lavish house and cushy job, our unsavory hero finds that his new success is rife with tribulation: not least his pushy bride's staggering sexual appetite.

It's truffle season, and in the hills around Bologna the hunt is on for the legendary Boscuri White, worth more than its weight in gold. But when an American truffle 'supertaster' goes missing, English Detective Daniel Leicester discovers not all truffles are created equal. Did the missing supertaster bite off more than he could chew?

The phone call to the police arrives at dusk from an isolated farmhouse, 50 miles from the city. A terrified woman's voice pleads for help. But a violent storm rages in the area, and the first available patrol only succeeds in reaching her hours later. It is too late. Something perturbing has happened, something which leaves the investigators in the dark. Just one person is able to reveal the message hidden behind this act of evil, but this person is no longer a policeman.

Murder is the deadliest art...An invitation to an exclusive event during the Venetian Biennale gives Honorary Consul Nathan Sutherland the perfect chance to drink prosecco in the sunshine and meet some of the greats of the art world. And then a world-famous critic is decapitated by one of the installations in the British Pavilion. A terrible accident, it seems, until a postcard is discovered in the victim's pocket: an image of Judith beheading Holofernes.

Hollywood. The city where dreams are made. On the losing side of a bloody East Coast crime war, Danny Ryan is now on the run. The Mafia, the cops, the FBI all want him dead or in prison. With his little boy, his elderly father and the tattered remnants of his loyal crew of soldiers, he makes the classic American migration to California to start a new life. A quiet, peaceful existence. But the Feds track him down and want Danny to do them a favor that could make him a fortune or kill him.