Wednesday, January 12, 2022

A Quiet Death in Italy by Tom Benjamin

First Line: Like much else in a city that had once been governed by the Catholic Church, the old morgue was a muddle of the sacred and profane.
 
When anything goes wrong in Bologna, Italy, the first to be blamed are the police. This holds true when the body of a radical protester is found floating in one of the city's underground canals.
 
Private investigator Daniel Leicester receives a call from the dead man's lover, and he agrees to take the case. The more he follows leads, the more he uncovers-- secrets dating back to the 1970s and right back into the present-day heart of the political establishment. Moreover, the secrets Leicester is uncovering are putting his life in danger.
 
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The reason why I picked up A Quiet Death in Italy is entirely due to its setting. I've been "traveling" around Italy, solving mysteries one after the other, but I had yet to sample one set in Bologna. I thought it was time to "visit" a new location.
 
The portrait resident Tom Benjamin paints of Bologna is one of unrest caused by some of the usual suspects: corrupt police, corrupt government officials, and greedy property developers, with the added flavor of very vocal and active radical protesters. Some of the scenes set during protests were very well-written, making me feel as though I were right in the streets with the main character.
 
Former investigative journalist and widower Daniel Leicester is a British ex-pat living in Bologna with his young daughter and working for his father-in-law as a private investigator. He has a very strong sense of right and wrong and is willing to stand up for his principles-- but not at the expense of his common sense. When you're a single parent of a young child, you do have to draw a line somewhere, and I was happy to see that Leicester could make this distinction.
 
As well-written as A Quiet Death in Italy is, and as much as I learned about present-day Bologna, the story and its main character never really captured my interest or my imagination. Your mileage may certainly vary, so if you're looking for a mystery set in a different Italian location, you may definitely want to give this book a try.  
 
A Quiet Death in Italy by Tom Benjamin
Narrated by Jonathan Keeble.
ASIN: B07Y5KQHMF
Hachette Audio © 2019
Audiobook. 8 hours, 28 minutes.
 
Private Investigator, #1 Daniel Leicester mystery
Rating: C
Source: Purchased from Chirp Books.

6 comments:

  1. I would have been drawn in by the setting, too, Cathy. And that's an interesting place in Italy (i.e. not Rome, Venice, etc.). That's one reason I like Carofiglio's series - it takes place in Bari. At any rate, your review is a reminder that setting isn't enough to make for an excellent story. For me, I have to care about the characters, or at least one of them. If you don't warm to at least one, it's harder to be absorbed in their doings.

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    1. Yes, it is. At least one character has to spark real interest for me, even if it's the Bad Guy. I've been known to read a book simply to discover if the bad guy got what was coming to him! LOL

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  2. Italy is indeed a great place for setting a mystery. I've read a number of the Donna Leon mysteries set there and always enjoyed them.

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    1. Leon is an author that I keep saying I'm going to give another chance. I read her first book and it didn't do anything for me, but she ranks so highly on so many readers' lists that I know I'm missing out on something!

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  3. I just read this a couple of weeks ago! I picked it up from the library's new book display specifically because of the setting - I also had not read anything set in Bologna before. And my reaction was similar to yours, though positive enough that I'm likely to give the next one a try, to see if the author improves at all.

    Meanwhile, I'll offer another recommendation for Donna Leon's mysteries. I think she does a good job with developing characters and evoking quotidian life in Venice. I do find that I approach her books more as a visit, rather than expecting a criminal inquiry right off the bat; because Venice is a smaller city, and her stories don't normally involve tourists, it can take a while for the narrative to uncover what the mystery actually is and to see the fuller picture of what's going on, if that helps. And since I only started reading them a few years ago, it's one of the rare series that I have not read in order, so I can say that you can pick up whichever entry seems interesting.

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    1. This is good to know. I may not pick up that first book again because I was unimpressed with that one. Just thinking about reading it again was a major roadblock.

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