The Few
Nadia Dalbuono
The Few
Nadia Dalbuono
Detective Leone Scamarcio, the son of a former leading Mafioso, has turned his back on the family business, and has joined the Rome police force. He may be one of the last honest men in Italy.
But when Scamarcio is handed a file of extremely compromising photographs of a high-profile Italian politician, and told to ‘deal with it’, he knows he’s in for trouble. And when a young man is found stabbed to death in Rome, and a young American girl disappears on a beach in Elba, Scamarcio’s job gets a whole lot more complicated.
Worst of all, every lead seems to implicate the prime minister - a multi-media baron, and the most powerful man in Italy.
Unable to confide in his colleagues about the case, Scamarcio finds himself summoned to a meeting with Italy’s most notorious serial killer, who has some shocking information to share.
And when the international media pick up on the girl’s disappearance, Scamarcio’s inquiry takes a new and unwelcome turn. He finds himself at the centre of a political firestorm, with initial questions about his controversial appointment to the force returning with a vengeance. His position in the police has never been more at risk.
As the case spins out of control, and his own past catches up with him, Scamarcio must navigate the darkest currents of Italian society - only to find that nothing is as it seems, and that the price of truth may be higher than he can pay.
Review
Fiona Hardy
Detective Leone Scamarcio is a straight cop with a bent history: his father was a leading member of the Mob, and while he might not have inherited his father’s criminal inclinations, his father’s reputation hovers behind him like a shadow. Nevertheless, there’s one person who’s convinced of his honesty – the police chief, who hands him a file that needs to be kept quiet. A foreign minister has been photographed in the company of a male prostitute, the politician has left town to hide from his mistakes, and the prostitute is now dead in his Trastevere flat, his body stabbed repeatedly. A camera is found in the room, and the pictures that are uncovered – well – they’re not pleasant. Soon, Scamarcio is trying to track down a killer, all the while without disclosing what he’s doing, who asked him to do so, and who the extraordinarily high-ranked person is that asked it of the chief in the first place. Scamarcio’s search takes him from a corrupt and heated Rome to the sunny and relaxed island of Elba, where a young American girl has disappeared. The police on Elba are ill-equipped to deal with the crime that has unfolded right on one of their famed beaches. From four-star hotels and seedy alleyways, to a police force striving to do what’s right and the Mafioso family that solves disturbing criminal problems without the red tape, unless it’s around the throat – Scarmarcio’s journey is scenic and grim.
The detective’s frequent coffee stops must be the fuel behind the book’s relentless pace, and Nadia Dalbuono has the ability to throw out new information, red herrings, loose-tongued suspects, and glimpses into both Scamarcio’s fractured past and current grappling with his morals. Violence gets the job done, but – mostly – it’s the last route he wants to take. There are a few loose ends to the plot that stay undone, but this is the first in a two-book series. The Few is a rock-solid read, with the click-clack of shoes on cobblestones and the oppressive heat of a Mediterranean summer making for a delectable spring treat.
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