- Format: Kindle (Amazon)
- Series: Pushkin Vertigo
- Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo (February 23, 2016)
- Translated from Italian by Jill Foulson
- first published 1935
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1782271708
- ISBN-13: 978-1782271703
A body is discovered in a Milan apartment, and Inspector De Vincenzi investigates. The apartment happens to belong to and old university friend of his, Aurigi. When the body turns out to be that of Aurigi's banker, and a phial of prussic acid is discovered in the bathroom, suspicion falls on the apartment's owner, and De Vincenzi is agonisingly torn between his sense of duty and his loyalty to an old comrade...
This intensely dramatic mystery from the father of the Italian crime novel, Augusto de Angelis, is the first to feature his most famous creation--Inspector De Vincenzi.
My take
I think it may have been a combination of the translation, the author's style, and the complex plot, but I found this a very hard novel to become engaged in. I think the plot reflected the times it was set in.
My rating: 3.5
About the author
De Angelis was born in Rome. He published his first mystery, Il banchiere assassinato, in 1935. He subsequently wrote some twenty crime books, whose protagonist is Commissario Carlo De Vincenzi of the squadra mobile of Milan. Some of them were adapted for television by RAI in 1974–1977, with Paolo Stoppa playing the role of De Vincenzi.
Despite the success of the books, the Fascist government banned them. De Angelis was arrested in 1943, accused of being Anti-Fascist. After a few months he was freed but soon afterwards he was beaten up by a Fascist activist, and died at Bellagio of the wounds he had received.
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