Bitter remedy

Conor Fitzgerald

Book - 2014

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MYSTERY/Fitzgera Conor
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Subjects
Genres
Mystery fiction
Published
New York : Bloomsbury 2014.
Language
English
Main Author
Conor Fitzgerald (author)
Edition
First U.S. edition
Physical Description
313 pages ; 25 cm
ISBN
9781620406854
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

On an extended medical leave of absence, Commissario Alec Blume sets out from Rome without telling even his colleague and lover, Ispettore Caterina Mattiola, the mother of their infant daughter, Alessia. The floral-therapy course he intended to take in northern Italy is canceled, but an emergency lands him in the hospital, and a car accident leaves him stranded in the small town of Monterozzo, where Blume is soon in the midst of trying to find a missing Romanian prostitute and solving a 20-year-old disappearance, crossing lines of authority with the casual approval of local officials. Fortunately, Blume can count on Caterina, despite the initial and well-deserved frostiness with which she greets him, as she provides information and life-saving backup and curbs his impetuousness. The American-born Blume, reminiscent of a less-sensitive Salvo Montalbano in Andrea Camilleri's mysteries, is a cop who cares about people, however bumbling he may be, and has an indefinable appeal. In Blume's fifth outing, his interplay with Caterina is particularly on the mark, and the pair seem headed for a new turn in this series. A must for fans of Italian crime fiction.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2014 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Fitzgerald's intricately plotted fifth Alec Blume novel (after 2013's The Memory Key) takes the police commissioner from Rome to an unnamed village in central Italy for a holiday that proves anything but restful. Ingesting some poisonous seeds lands him in the hospital, and a car accident further extends his stay. The solicitous hostess at the villa where he's staying, Silvana, visits his bedside, as does her jealous fiance, Niki Solito, who owns a sleazy nightclub. When Blume's presence becomes known in the village, he's approached by Nadia Antonescu, who asks Blume to find a friend of hers, Alina Paulescu, a club girl who's gone missing. Blume's daring leaps of imagination to link clues, as well as inspired investigative help from Chief Insp. Caterina Mattiola, his lover back in Rome, provide a surprising resolution to this puzzler. Agent: Sarah Ballard, United Agents. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A prickly Italian police inspector battles illness, culture shock and personal demons before stumbling onto a case that stabilizes him. Somewhere in Europe, a captive hairdresser named Alina dreams of escape. Elsewhere, Caterina Mattiola has a surprisingly calm reaction to the discovery that her lover and baby daddy, investigator Alec Blume, has taken a holiday solo and without warning. Indeed, the frazzled Blume is in seclusion at a villa supervised by the brisk Silvana. The story advances murkily, alternating between Alina and Blume and moving freely through time. He undergoes unsatisfying therapy as details of Alina's past are sketched in: her Romanian upbringing, her Harry Potter obsession, her bubbly best friend, Nadia Antonescu. The two plots are eventually brought together by the disreputable Niki Solito, a slick nightclub owner who is a former (or perhaps current) lover of Silvana, as well as a link to the missing Alina. Nadia had traveled ahead of her friend, but when the two are finally reunited in Italy, Alina finds Nadia working at Niki's club and seriously careworn. Nadia credits Niki with "rescuing" her, but Alina is not so sure he's trustworthy. When Nadia appeals to Blume for help in finding her missing friend, the story finds focus and gains momentum, also giving Blume, perhaps, the remedy for what's been ailing him. The off-center characters, the narrative woolgathering and the way the seemingly disparate fragments of plot converge are part of Fitzgerald's tantalizing method in Blume's stylish fifth caper (The Memory Key, 2013, etc.). Readers new to the series may feel a bit lost. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.