The Memory Key: A Commissario Alec Blume Novel (The Alec Blume Novels) - Hardcover

Fitzgerald, Conor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1620401118 ISBN 13: 9781620401118

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2013

Synopsis

In the latest Commissario Alec Blume novel, our hero is called in by old friend magistrate Principe to "shadow" an investigation into the attempted murder of a former fascist terrorist responsible for a public bombing thirty years earlier. This investigation is adjacent to another: the murder of a young woman on the university campus of Rome. The apparent link between these two crimes is an articulate, learned, and thoroughly crazy professor called Pitagora, who teaches both literature and a system enigmatic memory techniques. Professor Pitagora is up-front about his political beliefs, but could his strange psychological program be masking something important?
All the investigators know the two crimes form part of the same nexus, but Blume believes he can find clues through the Professor. If only he were actually assigned to this case...
Meanwhile, Blume has been living with Caterina and not finding it easy - or rather, poor old Caterina is not finding it easy living with him. Will the strains in their relationship lead Blume astray? And can he successfully navigate the ranks of his distrustful colleagues, a rocky relationship, and a high-profile investigation--all without crossing the line?

About this title

About the Author

Conor Fitzgerald has lived in Ireland, the UK, the United States and Italy. He has worked as an arts editor, produced a current affairs journal for foreign embassies based in Rome, and founded a successful translation company. He is married with two children and lives in Rome. The Memory Theatre is the fourth in his series of Italian Crime novels.

Reviews

The sniper's bullet doesn't quite dispatch notorious terrorist Stefania Manfellotto, but the investigation into the attack on the Rome university campus that leaves Manfellotto brain damaged—as well as the subsequent fatal shooting there six months later of witness Sofia Fontana—could finally deal a death blow to the career of Commissioner Alec Blume in Fitzgerald's cerebral fourth mystery featuring the maverick American expat (after 2012's The Namesake). By rights, Blume shouldn't even be involved in the politically sensitive probe, which falls under the jurisdiction of the rival Carabinieri. But that detail isn't about to deter him once his old mentor, magistrate Filippo Principe, appeals for help, any more than he would dream of changing his opinion on a road rage homicide just because his lover, Chief Insp. Caterina Mattiola, sees it differently. Blume's readiness to pursue any leads in an increasingly puzzling case helps make him an outstanding detective, but also, within a society that puts such a premium on personal relationships, a perennial outsider. Agent: Sarah Ballard, United Agents. (Aug.)

This is not the kind of mystery in which the quick-thinking hero is as unfailingly strong or sensitive as the situation merits—the kind of person we would all like to be but definitely are not. Commissario Alec Blume of the Italian state police says the wrong things repeatedly, alienates both loved ones and colleagues, and acts impetuously and often unwisely. And, yet, he cares about people (usually more than he cares about the law), and he is a shrewd judge of and dangerously sympathetic toward human frailty. In his fourth outing, his failings seem ready to undo him permanently. His insensitivity to the needs of his former colleague and now live-in girlfriend, Caterina, have imperiled their relationship; his determination to work off the books to investigate two seemingly related murders threatens to end his career. But on he bumbles, careening toward a solution but leaving chaos in his wake. Blume is only a bit more likable than a train wreck, but he is utterly fascinating, his human shortcomings mirroring our own and forcing us to root for him. If you’re drawn to Andrea Camilleri’s similarly though not so seriously flawed Salvo Montalbano, you’ll be equally hooked by Alec Blume. --Bill Ott

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1620401118
• ISBN 13: 9781620401118
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320