β Scribed by Fitzgerald, Conor
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Fitzgerald's impressively plotted debut, the first in a projected contemporary crime series, introduces police chief commissioner Alec Blume, an American expatriate who's been living in Rome for the last 22 years. Since losing both his parentsβart historians who were shot and killed during a bank robbery on Via Cristoforo Colomboβas a teenager, Blume has been a loner of sorts, the proverbial outsider. When someone brutally murders Arturo Clemente, a prominent politician's husband and an animal rights activist who recently exposed a dog-fighting ring, in Clemente's apartment, the flawed but endearing Blume uses his unique perspective to negotiate his way through a labyrinthine minefield that includes crooked cops, unscrupulous politicians, and an ancient city whose very history is steeped in the corruption associated with organized crime. Those who like gritty crime thrillers with a European flair will be well rewarded. (Mar.)
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The appearance of a new police series set in Italy is guaranteed to whet the thirst of international crime-fiction fans, especially when a few sips evoke that heady Italian brew that comes from the smooth blending of a corrupt bureaucracy and a flawed, world-weary hero. Fitzgerald mixes the ingredients skillfully, adding a few flavors of his own. Alec Blume is an American, Seattle born, but he has spent most of his life in Rome and is now a commissario in the Italian state police, though his heritage labels him as an outsider. His ambiguous status plays a role in what appears to be a classic Italian βpoliticalβ murderβthe killing of an animal-rights activist whose wife is an important politician and whose mistress has ties to the Mob. The plot unwinds with some genuine surprises, though not of the simplistic whodunit variety, but the focus here is on character: Blume, of course, but also his colleagues, who are casually comfortable with corruption, as well as the wife, the mistress, and the killer. This promising debut is reminiscent of early Michael Dibdin, and that is more than enough to put Fitzgeraldβs series on your radar. --Bill Ott
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