It's been four months since Deputy Police Chief Dottor
Rocco Schiavone has been transferred to the picturesque
town of Val d'Aosta, and he has hated every minute of it.
It's not that he hates the town itself, he would hate it
anywhere else if it's not his beloved Rome. It's
December, Rocco is cold, his feet are wet, and he still
refuses to wear unsightly boots. And because of those
industrious small town police officers, he has to work.
The nerve of those people! Just as he thought things
couldn't get any worse, a body is discovered on the ski
slopes nearby, and to top it all, it's a murder. Rocco
hasn't really been around town, least of all the ski
slopes, and now he has to actually conduct an
investigation in these conditions.
BLACK RUN is definitely not your run of the mill murder
mystery, and Rocco Schiavone is unlike any detective I
have ever seen. But BLACK RUN is so deliciously and
irreverently Italian. I love how Mr. Manzini captures the
flavour of a small Italian ski town, and that it doesn't
get lost in translation either. Rocco is a pot-smoking,
middle-aged police officer with a wife he loves, a
mistress, and a motley crew of subalterns. He's
sarcastic, cynical and not especially well-mannered, and
his methods are not quite orthodox but he gets the job
done. Rocco is a fascinating character, he possesses an
unusual sense of justice. However, when we finally learn why he was banished
from Rome, it's a pleasant
shocker and reveals an unexpected side of the Italian
police officer.
BLACK RUN is a quick, fast-paced read with colourful
characters all-around, funny dialogue, and in spite -- or
because -- of the general light tone of the book, when the
crime is solved, I was quite taken aback. I never saw it
coming, and not because of red herrings either, but
because BLACK RUN is a very, very clever murder mystery!
Already an international hit, a sly, sizzling mystery—the first in a sensational crime series—set in the Italian Alps, reminiscent of the works of Andrea Camilleri, D. A. Mishani, Donna Leon, and Henning Mankell.
Getting into serious trouble with the wrong people, deputy prefect of police Rocco Schiavone is exiled to Aosta, a small, touristy alpine town far from his beloved Rome. The sophisticated and crotchety Roman despises mountains, snow, and the provincial locals as much as he disdains his superiors and their petty rules. But he loves solving crimes.
When a mangled body has been discovered on a ski run above Champoluc, Rocco immediately faces his first challenge—identifying the victim, a complex procedure complicated by his ignorance of the customs, dialect, and history of his new home. Proud and undaunted, Rocco makes his way among the ski runs, mountain huts, and aerial tramways, meeting ski instructors, Alpine guides, the hardworking, enigmatic folk of Aosta, and a few beautiful locals eager to give him a warm welcome.
It won\\\'t be easy, this mountain life, especially with a corpse or two in the mix. But then there\\\'s nothing that makes Rocco feel more at home than an investigation.
An insightful observer of human nature, Antonio Manzini writes with sly humor and a dash of irony, and introduces an irresistible hero—a fascinating blend of swagger, machismo, and vulnerability—in a colorful and atmospheric crime mystery series that is European crime fiction at its best.
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