The Hit

Nadia Dalbouno

Scribe Publications

ISBN: 9781925321609

 

Description:

The investigation of an apparent hit-and-run unravels a tangled web in modern Rome.

 

When the family of Micky Proietti, a top television executive, goes missing, Leone Scamarcio is called to investigate. Everyone, it seems — from Premier League footballers to jilted starlets and cabinet ministers — has an axe to grind with Proietti. What starts out as an investigation into his countless affairs soon becomes an inquiry into how Proietti does business and the people he has discarded along the way. Finally, Proietti’s finances attract Scamarcio’s attention, and he discovers that the drama commissioner has been granting favours to some very shadowy sponsors.

 

Like a swimmer trying to escape a riptide, Scamarcio comes to realise that this new inquiry threatens to bring him head to head with his father’s old lieutenant, Piero Piocosta. If he’s to survive in the police force, Scamarcio knows that he must find a way to get Piocosta off his back, once and for all. And find it quickly.

 

Reluctantly, he travels home to Calabria in an attempt to understand how powerful Piocosta has really become and whether he might ever be silenced. It’s a perilous journey, but one Scamarcio has to make if he’s to finally banish the ghosts of his past.

 

 

My View:

Always have a contingency plan.

 

A multifaceted crime fiction narrative of kidnapping, deceit, organised crime, and manipulation that threatens to destroy the career (and life) of our protagonist Leone Scamarcio. The importance of family – in the literal and figurative (criminal) definition of the word is cleverly explored as secrets are slowly revealed.

 

Once again Dalbuono takes the reader on an armchair tour of Italy – the locations and culture real and colourful.

 

Scamarcio is an empathetic character; flawed, haunted by the past and struggling to make sense of the present.  As the narrative progresses, we, the reader can foresee the very imminent danger that Scamarcio will soon face, he is like a puppet with his strings being pulled in all directions – the puppeteer/s hidden behind a screen. Lies and more lies, manipulation and manoeuvring, this complex plot delivers a not so happy ending…and the promise of more moral and ethical dilemmas to come. A great read.