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David Hewson's Italian crime series began with THE SEASON FOR THE DEAD featuring detective Nick Costa. This second adventure features Nick Costa's return to duty with a new sidekick -- Gianni Peroni. Peroni like Costa and other leading characters carries a lot of past baggage which spills over into current events. These men and women are flawed individuals suffering from past injuries, physical and emotional, and liable to do things in the heat of the moment that do not stand up to cool scrutiny. The crafting of this thriller is excellent. I was continually surprised at new twists and turns in the story as consecutive climaxes produced unexpected happenings featuring unlikely characters. The initial premise of the tale is the discovery of a young girl's body in a peat bog, apparently the victim of some ancient pagan rite. The disappearance of another young woman ratchets up the tension for the police. Characters in the police and pathology services are established as individuals whose actions embroil them more and more deeply in this labyrinthine story. The body count becomes fairly high and the main characters get progressively more bruised and marked by their experiences. Seediness is shown by activities within police and gangster circles and a motif of flu symptoms adds to the messiness. The Italian atmosphere is very convincing -- Roman history and myths are well integrated into the story while the lifestyle of the city permeates the whole book. The attitudes of most of the male characters seem suitably macho and sex-driven. The female characters do not seem so well rounded with the exception of the pathologist, Teresa Lupo, who is not presented as a sex object. I suppose the thriller genre demands fast action and frequent sexual encounters but this can mean very limited characterisation. There is a fairly large circle of characters here which enables varied strands of the tale to develop consecutively but the interweaving of these sometimes makes the story progress rather choppily. The combining of ancient Dionysian ritual with the modern power politics of the crime bosses makes an intriguing pattern, however. As a thriller this book succeeds well.
Reviewed by Jennifer S. Palmer, March 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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