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Massimo Carlotto

“Think The Sopranos meets Goodfellas—without the Americanized gloss . . . [A] not-for-the-faint-hearted novel by an Italian master” (Reading Matters).

 In The Colombian Mule, the author called “the reigning king of Mediterranean noir” (The Boston Phoenix) and “the best living Italian crime writer” (Il Manifesto) brings to riveting life the story of Arías Cuevas, who sets in motion a chain of bloody events when police catch him trying to carry a shipment of La Tía’s cocaine into Italy. The intended recipient of the coke appears to have been art smuggler Nazzareno Corradi. But Corradi has been set up. He hires a PI known as “the Alligator” to get him out of the mess he’s in. Meanwhile, La Tía, a notoriously ruthless figure in the Colombian drug trade, is determined to move her operation to Italy, where cocaine has become all the rage among the professional classes. There’s only one thing standing in her way: the Alligator.

 The Alligator, an ex-con-turned-investigator, and his two companions, former underworld heavy Beniamino Rossini and Max the Memory, are among Massimo Carlotto’s most vivid noir creations. Together, the three men will wade deep into a criminal world of few scruples, testing their own strict and specific moral code along the way.

 “The morally ambiguous tone makes this an intriguing read, and the suspense is well maintained.” —Manchester Evening News

 “A fascinating glimpse into Italian culture and justice system. It’s sparely written and though quite short, there’s a lot of action . . . dark and gritty.” —Euro Crime

 “[A] brilliant book.” —The Friendly Shelf

Europa Editions

The Alligator Mysteries

The Colombian Mule

Christopher Woodall

“Dangerous, edgy noir crime fiction at its absolute finest and certain to be one of my books of the year” featuring PI Marco “The Alligator” Burrati (reviewingtheevidence.com).

A woman has gone missing. Her husband, too ashamed to admit to the police that he and his wife were part of a ring of sexual adventurers that organized sadomasochistic orgies, turns instead to the Alligator. Marco Burrati enters a depraved demiworld where ferocious deviates prey upon lonely victims. But the savagery of this world is only the first surprise this investigation holds in store for the Alligator. Encountering such violence and desperation triggers memories of his own time in prison. And while the unwritten rule of ex-cons is that you must never talk about your experiences behind bars, the Alligator and his two longtime associates, Max the Memory and Beniamino Rossini, are forced to confront demons they thought long buried.

In The Master of Knots, “the reigning king of Mediterranean noir,” Massimo Carlotto, gives his readers a work of hardboiled noir fiction that is darker than ever before as he digs into the shadowy corners of human experience (The Boston Phoenix). This stunning novel sets a new high-water mark in the literary history of the Mediterranean Noir novel.

“Brooding, sexual, and connected to Italy’s socio-political climate . . . Carlotto’s tight prose makes for a quick and satisfying journey into a world absent of clear-cut morality.” —Publishers Weekly

“The author shows a sure grasp of the double lives of BDSM devotees for whom unmasking would mean calamity.” —Kirkus Reviews

The Master of Knots

PI Marco “the Alligator” Buratti returns in a thriller from the author whose “brand of crime writing is tougher than even the toughest American noir” (Josh Bazell, national bestselling author).

Massimo Carlotto has been described as “the reigning king of Mediterranean noir” (Boston Phoenix), “about as gritty as they come” (The New York Times), and “the best living Italian crime writer” (Il Manifesto). Now, he gives his American readers his most memorable character yet: ex-con turned private investigator Marco Buratti, a.k.a. the Alligator.

Closing the door on a crime-ridden past, Buratti plans to spend the rest of his days in the darkness of a seedy nightclub sipping Calvados and listening to the blues. But things don’t quite work out as he planned: though he may be through with his past, his past isn’t through with him. When his gangster friend Beniamino Rossini’s girlfriend is kidnapped, Buratti is forced to investigate a case of international drug dealing. He will be thrown headfirst into the underworld he has struggled to escape. In the world of Massimo Carlotto’s fiction, new and old criminal organizations collide and innocent bystanders are as hard to find as honest cops.

“A cocktail of mystery and romanticism, a novel in which there are no real heroes and no signs of redemption. In short, classic Carlotto.” —Rolling Stone (Italy)

“A gripping novel that can be read on different levels, as a breathtakingly dark noir novel or as a means of penetrating reality. These two levels magically blend in Massimo Carlotto’s books.” —Il Manifesto

“The setting is beautifully—if grimly—realized. La dolce vita it ain’t—but this is top-notch Mediterranean noir.” —Kirkus Reviews

Bandit Love

Antony Shugaar

PI Marco “the Alligator” Buratti returns in a “raucous, delicious ride” from the celebrated Italian crime writer and author of Bandit Love (Cedar Rapids Gazette).

Padua, Italy. An unremarkable man, a husband and father, disappears without a trace. After a few months of searching, the police send his file to the cold cases department to be thrown in with the files of other missing persons. One woman knows the truth about his disappearance, but, being the daughter of a prominent and wealthy Swiss industrialist, she fears coming forward with what she knows: that she was his lover and that there is more to his disappearance than another bored suburban husband running out on his wife. Stricken by guilt, she finally confides in a lawyer who advises her to turn to Marco Buratti, a.k.a. the Alligator, for help.

Buratti agrees to assist the woman. Initially, the case of the woman’s missing lover seems like a lost cause, but a clue puts the Alligator and his trusted associates, Max the Memory and Beniamino Rossini, on the trail of the unscrupulous and brilliant criminal, Giorgio Pellegrini, protagonist of The Goodbye Kiss and At the End of a Dull Day.

The deadly game of chicken in which the good guys and the bad guys are often hard to tell apart is Carlotto’s specialty. But good or bad, these men are survivors in a world where the once ironclad criminal codes of conduct are disappearing and new criminal syndicates do vicious battle with old.

“A shaded caper and an earnest investigation into the nature of evil that reads like a runaway train, and confirms Carlotto as equal to any of the English-writing czars of noir.” —LoveReading

“Gang of Lovers is Italian ‘hard boiled’ noir but with the shell left on.” —Crime Scraps Review

Gang of Lovers

“The best living Italian crime writer” immerses readers in a gritty noir novel featuring PI Marco “the Alligator” Buratti (Il Manifesto).

This novel, by one of Italy’s bestselling crime novelists, provides a unique perspective on the criminal and social dynamics that dominate contemporary Italy.

One of the many robberies that plague Northeast Italy goes wrong and ends with a brutal murder. The police investigation turns up nothing. Two years later, Marco Buratti, alias “the Alligator,” is asked to look into the crime and find out who was responsible.

Buratti’s employer is young, the youngest client he has ever had; he is only twelve years old and is the son of one of the victims. The Alligator realizes right from the start that the truth is cloaked, twisted, shocking. Together with his associates, Beniamino Rossini and Max the Memory, he finds himself mixed up in a story involving contraband gold and blood vendettas between criminal gangs.

“Finishing an Alligator mystery is like waking up after an all-night bender with your best friends. . . . You’re not 100 percent sure what happened. But you know you had a good time.” —Cedar Rapids Gazette

“Melancholy-tinged, Carlotto’s novel is quite nicely turned and solid entertainment.” —The Complete Review