This is a dark novel as we like them, a thriller that can only be read in one sitting – at the risk of depriving yourself of sleep. The author Piergiorgio Pulixi, whom we discovered with his first novel in French two years ago (the excellent The island of souls), is among the greatest feathers of the genre in the Italian boot and his work is in the process of being translated, one title at a time.
In Milan, Commissioner Strega and his partner Teresa Brusca are dealing with a series of violent murders perpetrated by teenagers. The problem is that Strega is suspended and cannot legally work on this case that haunts him; his future within the police is in the hands of a psychologist who must determine whether he will one day be able to return to his duties.
Strega is the kind of cop who makes every case personal; an investigator who drowns his worries in absinthe, reads Edgar Allan Poe and cannot find rest before bringing justice to the victims. With his build and his troubled military past, as well as his relationship with his partner, he recalls a more sanguine version of Cormoran Strike, the private detective of Robert Galbraith (aka J. K. Rowling). And that’s saying a lot about this hero that we will certainly want to find while reading The illusion of eviltranslated last year.
The song of the innocents
Gallmeister
336 pages