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היכנס לעולם אינסופי של סיפורים

תקשיב ותקרא

Antonio Manzini

“An engrossing mystery . . . peopled with authentic characters, most notably the wry, pot-smoking, disillusioned [cop] Rocco, who was born and raised in Rome.” —Publishers Weekly

It’s the bitterly cold spring season in alpine Aosta, and a girl has been kidnapped. Chiara Berguet, daughter of the owners of a local construction firm, was targeted thanks to the sizeable debt her parents owe. But like many a best-laid plan, a blown tire causes the crime to go haywire as the kidnappers’ van skids off the road and crashes into a pair of larch trees. Both the driver and his accomplice die on impact, leaving the girl in the back, gagged and bound and unable to break herself free.

Meanwhile Rocco Schiavone wakes to find himself in Anna’s apartment. She’s the best friend of his girlfriend Nora, and memories of the night before, a heated evening with Anna, return to him.

If trouble at home and a case of kidnapping weren’t enough, Rocco will eventually have to contend with Enzo Baiocchi. Rocco was the one who sent Enzo to prison, and in the process killed Enzo’s brother. Having just escaped from prison, Enzo is heading north with a newly purchased revolver and revenge on his mind. And when an unfortunate incident of mistaken identity makes Enzo’s act of vengeance even more fiendish, it also presents a gruesome scene for Rocco to discover on his return home.

“A next-read for those who enjoy Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti series and Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache novels.” —Booklist

Harper Paperbacks

Rocco Schiavone Mysteries

Out of Season: A Novel

The fourth installment in the Rocco Schiavone mystery series from the international bestselling author, Antonio Manzini picks up three days after his last novel, Out of Season, left off, as Rocco seeks revenge for a friend—and closure for himself.

Rocco is still reeling from the death of his best friend’s girlfriend, who was murdered as she slept in his bed. There’s no doubt that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and paid the ultimate price. With the identity of the hitman still unknown, a cloud lingers over Rocco, dulling his judgment and leaving this anti-hero exposed to other threats. For Rocco has stepped on one too many people’s toes over the years, namely the mafia that is still being rooted out in Aosta. 

To complicate matters, the kidnapped teenager that Rocco saved has not fully recovered. But all is not as it appears with that family. Her mother, father, and boyfriend are all running some sort of farce that Rocco can’t easily crack. And now he must grapple between these two parallel investigations and find answers once and for all…before one too many skeletons come after him. 

With the same clever insights, vitality, and humor readers have come to expect from Manzini, Spring Cleaning is another engaging, page-turning mystery.

Spring Cleaning: A Novel

An Italian detective who brings his “case to a solution out of Agatha Christie as satisfying as it is unexpected” is “a memorable companion in crime” (Kirkus Reviews).

Six months after being exiled from his beloved Rome, Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone has settled into a routine in the cold, quiet, chronically backward alpine town of Aosta: an espresso at home, breakfast in the piazza, and a morning joint in his office.

A little self-medication helps Rocco deal with the morons that almost exclusively comprise the local force. Especially on a day like today. It’s his girlfriend’s birthday (if you could call her that; in his mind, Rocco’s only faithful to his late wife), he has no gift—and he’s about to stumble upon a corpse.

It begins when a maid reports a burglary in Aosta. But there’s no sign of forced entry, and after Rocco picks the lock, he notices something off about the carefully ransacked rooms. That’s when he finds the body: a woman, the maid’s employer, left hanging after a grisly suicide. Or is it? Rocco’s intuition tells him the scene has been staged. In other words, it’s murder—a pain in the ass of the highest order.

In this stylish international mystery, Antonio Manzini further establishes Rocco Schiavone as one of the most acerbic, complicated, and entertaining antiheroes crime fiction has seen in years.

“Entertaining...Readers will look forward to seeing more of this fascinating and complex character.” —Publishers Weekly

“Manzini delivers a wonderful mix of in-depth characterization with an ever-deepening plot.” —Booklist

“Once I started reading, I couldn’t stop.” —Venerdì di Repubblica