In November 1944, in the worst winter ever known in Bologna, in the depths of the war, the bomb-scarred streets are home to starving refugees who have fled the advancing Allies. The Fascist Black Brigades, the officers of the S.S. and the partisans of the Italian Resistance compete for control of the city streets in bloody skirmishes. Comandante De Luca, who has proved himself “the most brilliant investigator” in Bologna, but who is now unwillingly working for the Political Police in a building that doubles as a torture facility, finds himself in trouble when three murders land on his desk: a professor shot through the eye, an engineer beaten to death, and a German corporal left to be gnawed on by rats in a flooded cellar. De Luca must rapidly unravel all three cases with ten lives on the line: ten Italian hostages who will face a Nazi firing squad if the corporal’s killing is not solved to the German command’s satisfaction. As he navigates a web of personal and political motivations – his life increasingly at risk – De Luca will not stop until he has uncovered the dangerous secrets concealed in the frozen heart of his city.
Carlo Lucarelli is a celebrated Italian crime writer who also has a huge following online thanks to his true crime investigation programme Blu Notte, first shown on Rai and now available on YouTube. The Inspector de Luca novels are not simply detective stories, they are intricately researched historical documents depicting life in Bologna during the tumultous years at the end of the Second World War and during the immediate post-war period. This excellent review gives an idea of what a unique social microcosm Bologna was to become in the short period before the Allies finally overcame the fascist puppet government installed in the north of the country after the 1943 armistice.
Claire was fortunate to hear Lucarelli speak about this recent translation of his 2020 novel at the Italian Institute of Culture in Edinburgh, at the launch of its publication, where he was joined by the novel’s translator Joseph Farrell. This copy is signed by the translator.
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