After reading a review of this book by David Vineyard on Steve Lewis' Mystery*File, I thought I'd give it a try. It's a considerably complexly plotted mystery set in Rome with a big cast of characters that includes cops (Costa, Peroni, Falcone), a pathologist (Teresa Lupo), the anti-Mafia squad, Mafia members, revenge, ancient rituals, buried secrets, and probably more that I'm forgetting. Things are set in motion when a pair of Ugly American tourists discover a bog body. The body is at first wrongly identified by Lupo as being as much as 2000 years old, but it's not. It's only 17 years old, and the girl is soon identified correctly. Then a mother comes to the police because of the apparent abduction of her daughter. That's when things get complicated. There's a series of revelations at the end of the novel, one after another, many of them surprising.
This is a literate but overlong thriller. Excellent atmosphere and local color, along with some genuine creepiness. Check it out.
1 comment:
David Vineyard reads some very interesting books.
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