Italian Rules

Italian Rules is Tom Benjamin’s fourth outing for Daniel Leicester, an English PI based through marriage in Bologna.  Having explored traditional Italian themes in his first three books (anarchy in A Quiet Death in Italy, gastronomy in The Hunting Season, and music in Requiem in La Rossa), here Tom explores another subject very close to the Italian heart: cinema, or more specifically, art house cinema.

A famous Hollywood director arrives in Bologna to remake a cult film and the city’s renown cinema archive decides to mark the occasion with a screening of the original, only to discover it has disappeared. After Daniel follows the trail of Love Upon a Razorblade to an apparent murder-suicide, he begins to suspect there may be more at stake than missing negatives – could the film contain a clue to one of the city’s most enduring mysteries?

If you are an avid armchair traveller, or even if you just love a good detective novel set in a memorable location, then look no further than Italian Rules.  Pick up the book, put your feet up… and get lost among the red porticos and dark alleyways of the historic city of Bologna.

Krystyna Green