The Namesake: An Alec Blume Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

When it comes to murder it's all in a name When magistrate Matteo Arconti's namesake, an insurance man from Milan, is found dead outside the court buildings in Piazzale Clodio, it's a coded warning to the authorities - a clear message of defiance and intimidation. Commissioner Alec Blume, all too familiar with Rome's criminal underclass, knows little of the Calabrian mafia currently under investigation by the magistrate. Handing control of the murder inquiry to his now live-in and not-so-secret partner Caterina Mattiola, Blume takes a back seat. But while Caterina questions the dead man's widow, Blume has an underhand idea of his own to lure the arrogant mafioso out of his hiding place...

Reviews

Exquisitely written in a quietly elegant style, and dotted with nuggets of coal-black humour * Irish Times *
Alec Blume is an inspired creation. An American who has become a commissioner in the Italian police, he's a sly, sardonic loner who gives the impression of knowing Rome better than its natives ... Fitzgerald is an elegant, visual writer * Guardian *
The American-born Blume is an engaging hero who might just have to potential to fill the gap left when Michael Dibdin's death ended his Italian detective Aurelio Zen's investigations * Sunday Times *
I'm putting my money on Alec Blume becoming the most popular detective of the coming decade * Belfast Telegraph *

Author Bio

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 Namesake is the third in his series of Italian Crime novels.