Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
Commissario Ricciardi, first introduced in I Will Have Vengeance, sees the dead. They talk to him and tell him their thoughts. Ricciardi's "gift" helps solve crimes, but it isolates him from his colleagues. He can't burden them with the horror he sees around him every day. Besides, they'd think Ricciardi was crazy. A premise like this could make this novel unreal, but it doesn't. It's a well-crafted, ultimately moving crime novel set in 1931 Naples. When an old woman is battered to death, Ricciardi meets all sorts of characters in his search for a killer and a motive. Most of them see him, and the police, as their enemy. VERDICT This is a solid series with an intriguing detective, and fans will eagerly await the third volume, Everyone in Their Place: The Summer of Commissario Ricciardi, to be published in November. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
