Nameless Serenade
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- £19.99
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- £19.99
Publisher Description
The ninth Commissario Ricciardi Neapolitan mystery is "noir with a heart, haunting and beautiful . . . A literary thriller of exceptional quality" (NB Magazine).
Years ago, Vinnie Sannino left Naples on a ship bound for America, where he found fame and fortune as a boxer. But his gilded life in the new world came to an abrupt end when, during a fight, with a heavy punch to the head of his opponent, Vinnie killed a man in the ring.
Now, Vinnie's back in Italy, pining for the woman he left behind. Cettina, however, is now a married woman. She was, at least, until her husband was recently found dead, killed by a single blow to the head. For Commissario Ricciardi, one of the most faceted cops in fiction, and his partner Maione, it is a going to be a long, rainy, week in Naples.
"Deep melancholy infuses the crafty whodunit plot of de Giovanni's superior ninth mystery set in 1930s Italy . . . Ricciardi, who's literally haunted by visions of the dead, continues to be one of the most nuanced and intriguing sleuths in contemporary crime fiction." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"De Giovanni is one of the best historical crime writers out there. His Commissario Ricciardi novels, set during the fascist period in Italy, are intelligent and totally engrossing. Nameless Serenade is a perfect addition to the series; a really satisfying murder mystery, an insight into 1930s Naples and a thrilling chapter in the life of the Commissario. Lyrical prose and intriguing rounded characters contribute to making this one of the finest in the Ricciardi chronicles." —NB Magazine
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Deep melancholy infuses the crafty whodunit plot of de Giovanni's superior ninth mystery set in 1930s Italy (after 2017's Glass Souls). After the corpse of Constantino Irace, the owner of a celebrated fabric store, is discovered on a Naples street, Commissario Luigi Ricciardi and his deputy, Brigadier Raffaele Maione, are under political pressure to close the case quickly with the arrest of Vincenzo Sannino, who once had a successful boxing career in America that was a source of pride for his country. Sannino quit after his trademark punch, dubbed the snakebite, caused the death of an opponent and even an entreaty from Mussolini to box again proved unpersuasive. Although Irace might have been killed by a blow resembling the snakebite, and Sannino had motive to kill Irace, because he married the woman Sannino had long been pining for, the honest policemen pursue a less obvious theory, despite its risk to their positions. Ricciardi, who's literally haunted by visions of the dead, continues to be one of the most nuanced and intriguing sleuths in contemporary crime fiction.
