Via delle Oche (De Luca Trilogy, Book 3) - Softcover

Lucarelli, Carlo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933372532 ISBN 13: 9781933372532

Publisher: Europa Editions, 2008

Synopsis

It is 1948. Italy's fate is soon to be decided in bitterly contested national elections. A man has been found dead in via delle Oche, at the center of Bologna's notorious red light district. The city fathers would like to disguise the man's death as a suicide. But Commissario De Luca knows better. While the man hanging from a rafter does have a noose around his neck and an overturned stool beneath him, when the stool is righted, his feet don't reach the seat. "Normal enough that a hanged man grows a little longer if he's left a while," De Luca quips. "But I've never heard of one getting shorter."
As always, De Luca is unwilling to look the other way when evidence in the man's murder points to local politicians and members of the Bologna police force. The brutal worlds of crime and politics conspire once again, and in this installment of the renowned De Luca trilogy, sex for money is added into the mix. As elections creep nearer, the death count escalates with every new lead. De Luca is so close to the truth he can smell it, and it reeks of danger.

About this title

About the Author:

About the Author
Described as “a noir master” by Kirkus Reviews, Carlo Lucarelli is one of Italy’s best-loved crime writers. He began his career with the popular De Luca trilogy (Carte Blanche, The Damned Season, Via delle Oche) and has since published over a dozen novels and collections of stories.

About the Translator
Michael ReynoldsÂ’ translations include The Big Question and The Miracle of the Bears by Wolf Erlbruch, and all three books in Carlo LucarelliÂ’s De Luca trilogy. He is the author of Sunday Special, and La notte di Q, a childrenÂ’s tale illustrated by Brad Holland.

From Booklist:

The final volume in Lucarelli’s De Luca trilogy finds the Italian policeman back on the force, this time in Bologna in 1948. Political reprisals are still the order of the day, as the postwar climate remains tumultuous. De Luca is trying to stay under the radar, his past employment with Mussolini’s secret police likely to derail his career at any moment. Self-preservation dictates that he stay away from a hot-potato case involving the suicide (or murder) of a gofer at one of Bologna’s licensed brothels, but De Luca can’t resist the temptation to follow the clues wherever they lead, which, inevitably, is straight toward a political scandal. Set in the days prior to a contentious general election pitting Communists against right-wing Christian Democrats, the novel may prove difficult to follow for those not familiar with postwar Italian politics, but the general milieu—a cop trying to do his job but running afoul of departmental turf-builders—will strike home with anyone who has watched The Wire (or even just worked in any kind of office). Give this to fans of Michael Dibdin’s Aurelio Zen novels. --Bill Ott

About this edition

• Publisher: Europa Editions
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1933372532
• ISBN 13: 9781933372532
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160