Death's Dark Abyss

The author known as an Italian James Ellroy delivers “a raw, extremely dark portrait of a crime and its aftermath” (The Washington Post).

During a bungled robbery attempt, Raffaello Beggiato takes a young woman and her eight-year-old child hostage. He later murders both in cold blood. Beggiato is arrested, tried, and sentenced to life. Undone by his loss, the victims’ father and husband, Silvano Contin, plunges into an ever-deepening abyss until the day, fifteen years later, when the murderer seeks his pardon. The wounded Silvano turns predator as he ruthlessly plots his revenge.

A riveting story of guilt, revenge, and justice, Massimo Carlotto’s Death’s Dark Abyss tells the tale of two men and the savage crime that irreversibly binds them. Two dramatic stories meet in this stylish, passionate indictment of a legal system that seems powerless both to compensate victims and to rehabilitate perpetrators.

“[A] remarkable study of corruption and redemption in a world where revenge is best served ice-cold.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“The master of Mediterranean noir has fashioned a dark, twisted tale of retribution.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“[A] subtle and disturbing tale of the effects of violence on its survivors . . . The author manages to make Contin’s descent into hell plausible and heartbreaking, and devises an ingenious and even touching resolution.” —Publishers Weekly