A DARKNESS DESCENDING

A Florentine investigator seeks the reason for the suicide of a politically connected woman.

Sandro Cellini’s life has settled down since his dismissal from the police force (The Dead Season, 2012). His wife, Luisa, has survived breast cancer, his assistant Giuli has beaten her drug addiction and become a clever helper, and he has enough business to keep him busy. Now a new case comes calling through unexpected channels. Giuli and her computer expert boyfriend, Enzo, are involved with a green political party called Franzione. When party leader Rosselli’s partner Flavia kills herself at a seaside hotel, leaving Rosselli with their newborn son and a bitter mother who hated Flavia, Sandro is asked to investigate. Since Italian politics are notoriously rife with corruption and violently diverse views, Sandro wonders whether Flavia’s death was politically motivated or if there was a more personal reason for the intelligent 40-year-old beauty to kill herself. All the while, Sandro is depressed by the fact that his former partner Pietro is avoiding him. But then something happens that brings them together again: Pietro’s college-age daughter Chiara suddenly moves out of her parents’ house to live with a man they’ve never met and know nothing about. Luisa, Giuli and Pietro’s wife, Gloria, quietly try to discover Chiara’s whereabouts after Luisa sees her on the street. Little do they know that finding the reason for Flavia’s suicide may just lead them to Chiara.

Those looking for fast-paced thrills will not find them in this literate, cerebral, decorously paced mystery that nevertheless holds readers’ interest to the end.