Sharp, succinct storytelling and breathtaking prose combine in this new novel by the author of Ties , a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a Kirkus Reviews and Sunday Times Best Book of the Year. Trick is a stylish drama about ambition, family, and old-age that goes beyond the ordinary and predictable. Imagine a duel between two men. One, Daniele Mallarico, is a successful illustrator who, in the twilight of his years, feels that his reputation...

"This new installment in Maurizio de Giovanni's bestselling 'Bastards of Pizzofalcone' series unfolds during a crisp April in contemporary Naples. A baby is left abandoned beside a dumpster. A young Ukrainian maid battles against greed and wickedness. Feral animals have begun disappearing from the streets. The task of solving these mysteries is entrusted to a team of policemen in which few, if any, have faith: the Bastards of Pizzofalcone. De Giovanni...

A modest apartment in Via Gemito smelling of paint and turpentine. Its furniture pushed up against the wall to create a make-shift studio. Drying canvases moved from bed to floor each night. Federí, the father, a railway clerk, is convinced that he possesses great artistic promise. If it weren't for the family he must feed and the jealousy of his fellow Neapolitan artists, nothing would stop him from becoming a world-famous painter. Ambitious and...

"Giovanna's pretty face is changing, turning ugly, at least so her father thinks. Giovanna, he says, looks more like her Aunt Vittoria every day. But can it be true? Is she really changing? Is she turning into her Aunt Vittoria, a woman she hardly knows but whom her mother and father clearly despise? Surely there is a mirror somewhere in which she can see herself as she truly is. Giovanna is searching for her reflection in two kindred cities that...

In 1930s fascist Naples, the enigmatic Commissario Ricciardi investigates the brutal murder of an infamous tenor, a case that is marked by the assistance of a loyal colleague and Ricciardi's own secrets.

A murder mystery presented as opera buffa. It features Aurelio Zen of the Naples police in a scheme to dissuade the daughters of a wealthy widow from marrying Mafia men. The operation leads to the discovery of a gang of terrorists, masquerading as garbage collectors. By the author of Dead Lagoon.

This is Naples as you've never seen it before. A chaotic, shadowy city full of ominous echoes and dark alleyways where each inhabitant seems too absorbed by his or her own problems to give a damn about anybody else. And that is exactly what makes it possible for a cold, methodical killer to commit his atrocious crimes largely undisturbed, to merge with the crowd as if he were invisible. The newspapers call him "The Crocodile" because, like a crocodile,...

"Christmas has just passed and the city is preparing to celebrate New Year when, on the stage of a variety show, famous actor Michelangelo Gelmi fires a gun at his wife, Fedora Marra. The shooting itself would be nothing strange: it is repeated every evening as part of their performance. But this time, someone replaced one of the blanks with a real bullet. Gelmi swears his innocence, but few believe him. Approaching old age and with a career in decline,...

Three exhilarating novellas 'The Secret Dead, The Academy of Secrets, and The Dead of Winter' following the early adventures of young priest Giordano Bruno in the dramatic days of sixteenth century Italy. Even the dead have a story to tell ... Naples, 1566. During a sweltering summer, eighteen-year-old Giordano Bruno takes his final vows at San Domenico Maggiore and is admitted to the Dominican Order despite doubts over his tendency to ask difficult...