Blood Curse
The Springtime of Commissario Ricciardi
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4.2 • 6 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The second historical mystery featuring Commissario Ricciardi, "one of the most interesting and well-drawn detectives in fiction" (The Daily Beast).
Commissario Ricciardi has visions. He sees and hears the final seconds in the lives of victims of violent deaths. It is both a gift and a curse. It has helped him become one of the most acute and successful homicide detectives in the Naples police force. But all that horror and suffering has hollowed him out emotionally. He drinks and doesn't sleep. Other than his loyal partner, Brigadier Maione, he has no friends.
Naples, 1931. In a working-class apartment in the Sanità neighborhood, an elderly woman by the name of Carmela Calise has been beaten to death. When Ricciardi and Maione arrive at the scene, they learn that Calise was moonlighting as a fortuneteller and moneylender whose clients were some of the city's rich and powerful. She predicted their futures in such a way as to manipulate and deceive and made many enemies—those indebted to her, swayed by her lies, disappointed by her prophesies or destroyed by her machinations. Murder suspects in this atmospheric thriller abound and Commissario Ricciardi, one of the most original and intriguing investigators in contemporary crime fiction, will have his work cut out for him.
"The promise that each life will intersect keeps Ricciardi and Maione's investigation lively." —Publishers Weekly
"A well-crafted, ultimately moving crime novel set in 1931 Naples . . . This is a solid series with an intriguing detective, and fans will eagerly await the third volume." —Library Journal
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Aging tarot card reader Carmela Calise is bludgeoned to death in de Giovanni's (I Will Have Vengeance) very Italian second novel featuring Commissario Ricciardi, a man who can see the dead's final moments and hear their "last, obsessively repeated thought." A pensive and lonely figure, Ricciardi and his uncanny hunches generally earn his colleagues' mistrust, save for his steadfast champion Maione. This time around Maione has his own concerns, distracted by his own case involving gorgeous widow Filomena disfigurment. Set in Naples in 1931, the story delights in dichotomies: living and departed both crowd the streets, spring arrives in force after a long winter, primal needs determine the lives of the wealthy and working classes alike. These mysterious Neapolitan circles feature many subplots and suspects. Impoverished Filomena attracts unwanted propositions and hostilities from her neighbors, where the elevated social status of Emma Serra di Arpaja allows her to view beauty as her freedom from a cold marriage. As Carmela's second profession as a loan shark is uncovered, the narrative flicks between perspectives and disembodied thoughts to offer flashes of characters and possible suspects. Despite a few melodramatic missteps, the promise that each life will intersect keeps Ricciardi and Maione's investigation lively.
