Riccardo Bruni

The prologue aptly sets the scene for the novel and can not fail but entice the reader to continue to find out how the horrifying situation described therein was achieved. We are told that 10 bodies have been found of which 8 have met violent deaths with 2 being found buried and 2 are still alive. The story then begins with Giulio Rodari a well known children's author being transported by police to his mother's hotel set near a sleepy mountainous Tuscany village where he will be held under house arrest while evidence is being assembled concerning his involvement in the disappearance and suspected murder of his solicitor ex-girlfriend, Patrizia Alberti. The problem for Giulio is that he has suffered memory loss regarding the final moments he was with Patrizia, we know that he is obsessed with her and was stalking her prior to the final meeting but did he kill her?His memory now continually goes from reality to illusion.

For some readers this may not be the easiest of reads as the narrative switches from one plot line to another as we are introduced to a multitude of characters. It is somewhat like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle as you try to work out how everything fits into place to explain what we know from the prologue is coming. We also have the narratives of several cats which are intrinsic to the story line and gives the book a somewhat metaphysical dimension. The writing is very descriptive and you can visualise the falling snowbound late winter setting. For a crime novel several quite profound themes are explored including the need for environmental protection, corruption and how the past influences the present. Many of the characters are haunted by the loss of loved ones that occurred in a bus accident on a falling bridge 4 years previously. There is a big twist at the end which I for one did not see coming despite now looking back several clues.

Riccardo Bruni apart from writing fiction is an Italian journalist who also writes for newspapers, magazines, websites and blogs and can be congratulated in producing this fast paced but intelligent read. The translation is good and the cover also aptly gives the deep foreboding atmospheric feel of dread inside. If you like a good crime which is also a bit challenging then this could be for you.… (altro)

When a translated book seems bland, it is hard to know whether to fault the author or the translator. Here, the translator certainly did the author no favours by injecting modern idioms and a certain breeziness into the book. The author can be faulted too, for not colouring the story with enough detail about life in 16th century Venice. I don't mean that the book should have been cluttered with description, but we hear nothing of eating or drinking or music or culture and the story itself – a search for a politically important artefact - might have been set in any era.

What we are left with is a readable but unexciting mystery set in Venice just before the Protestant Reformation. A valuable and politically explosive book is in the city somewhere and a "devil" is murdering people trying to find it.

As I said, I found it bland, but not objectionable. An average effort, so three stars.

I received a review copy of "The Lion and the Rose" by Riccardo Bruni translated by Aaron Maines (Amazon Crossing) through NetGalley.com.… (altro)