Friday, May 18, 2012

The Namesake-Conor Fitzgerald

The Namesake


Conor Fitzgerald

Bloomsbury USA, Jun 5 2012, $25.00

ISBN: 9781608198450



Just outside the courthouses in Rome’s Piazzo Clodio, someone kidnaps and subsequently murders visiting Milan insurance agent Matteo Arconti. The victim was murdered to warn government officials to end their investigation into organized crime as the insurance agent has the same name as the magistrate leading the inquiry.



Magistrate Arconti is outraged that these thugs would kill an innocent civilian as a message of intimidation. He assigns Commissario Alec Blume to join the mob leaders at their convention Calabria. As Blume goes undercover in hopes of capturing the Ndrangheta gang whose leaders reside in the open in Germany, his lover and deputy Caterina Mattiola looks onto the homicide. However, impatient, Blume pulls a ruse using a forgery to insure the murderous chief of Ndrangheta is back in Italy.



The latest Commissario Alec Blume Italian police procedural (see The Dogs of Rome and The Fatal Touch) is a complicated exciting mystery in which ironically readers know what is happening due to engaging changing perspectives while Blume, Mattiola and other cops are in the dark. Loaded with action, The Namesake is a fabulous investigative thriller as Conor Fitzgerald deftly juggles several subplots which as a bonus enable armchair readers to obtain a taste of historical Italy.



Harriet Klausner



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