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.
