Death and the Olive Grove

Inspector Bordelli, Book 2

By: Marco Vichi, Stephen Sartarelli - translation

Narrated by: Tim Bruce

The second novel in the Inspector Bordelli series set in 1960s Florence - the detective must race to unmask a particularly brutal killer.

April 1964, but spring hasn't quite sprung. The bad weather seems suited to nothing but bad news. And bad news is coming to the police station. First, Bordelli's friend Casimiro, who insists he's discovered the body of a man in a field above Fiesole. Bordelli races to the scene but doesn't find any sign of a corpse.

Only a couple of days later, a little girl is found at Villa Ventaglio. She has been strangled, and there is a horrible bite mark on her belly. Then another little girl is found murdered, with the same macabre signature. And meanwhile Casimiro has disappeared without a trace. The investigation marks the start of one of the darkest periods of Bordelli's life: a nightmare without end, as black as the sky above Florence.

©2003 Ugo Guanda Editore (part of GeMs) (P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

The sympathies

The story, the characters, the time/history/setting.
(The Sardinian character’s accent was a bit Irish to my ear) After the war in Italy was a profound time of dreams and nightmares.
Thank you

Good plot

Like Inspector Bordelli as he is human with flaws The other interesting characters are unattractive, outcast yet you feel for them