Another sterling mystery from one of the leading, and most consistent, of Italian crime authors, this is the 7th case involving the aristocratic-born Commissario Ricciardi, of the Naples police, set in the 1930s, a fertile period for murky doings and conspiracies of all kind, with a real life and ominous background bubbling behind the scenes what with Mussolini ascending to power and a world in flux. A whole cast of colourful characters, some familiar, some new, people the busy Naples streets in a way that sometimes evokes the magic of Elena Ferrante, with humour mixing cleverly with pathos and even tragedy. A hot summer, and the gruesome murder of a gynecology professor brings Ricciardi, his colleague Brigadiere Malone and moody medical examiner Dr. Modo to the worrying case, and you have the recipe for a slow-cooked mystery investigation of the first order. Teeming with life (and death...). ~ Maxim Jakubowski
The Bottom of Your Heart Inferno for Commissario Ricciardi Synopsis
In the middle of a Summer heatwave, as Naples prepares for one of its most solemn holydays, a renowned surgeon falls to his death from his office window. For Commissario Ricciardi and Brigadiere Maione, it is the beginning of an investigation that will bring them into contact with the most torrid, conflicting, and enduring of human passions. In the world they are about to enter, infidelity appears inextricable from the most joyful expressions of love, and this interdependence sows doubt and uncertainty in both men, compromising their own attempts at love.
Maurizio de Giovanni lives and works in Naples. In 2005, he won a writing competition for unpublished authors with a short story set in the thirties about Commissario Ricciardi, which was then turned into the first novel of the series. His books have been successfully translated into French, Spanish and German, and are now available in English for the first time.
