A Private Venus

In the first installment of the prizewinning Duca Quartet from the godfather of Italian noir, a disgraced doctor investigating the murder of a young woman uncovers a shocking network of trafficking and exploitation in 1960s Milan.

Newly released from prison, and without his medical license, Duca Lamberti is at a loose end. When Milan’s police superintendent points him toward a job—as a favor to Duca’s late father, who was a trusted member of the force—he is not in a position to refuse. And so Duca finds himself employed by the wealthy plastics magnate Pietro Auseri, tasked with finding a medical intervention for Auseri’s son, Davide, who is slowly drinking himself to death.

At first, there seems to be nothing wrong with the young man: he’s healthy, reasonably good-looking, set up for a bright future. But Duca discovers that Davide has a terrible secret—one that threatens to consume him. Following a trail linked to the unsolved murder of a young woman, Duca unravels a dark underworld beneath the glitz and glamour of the cosmopolitan city, one that destroys young women like the one whose path crossed with Davide’s. Gruff, world-weary, and disillusioned, Duca nevertheless finds himself driven to seek truth and justice on behalf of those abandoned and cast aside by the modern world.

First published in 1966, A Private Venus introduces one of the most compelling and memorable protagonists in crime fiction, from a master of Italian noir.