Commissario Ricciardi
6 primary works • 7 total works
Book 1
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6
Springtime proffers fragrant temptations to the men and women of Naples. But evil also lurks in the sweet-smelling spring air. It is one week before Easter, Naples, 1932. At the high-class brothel in the center of town known as Paradiso, Viper, the most famous prostitute of all, is found dead. Suffocated with a pillow. Her last client swears that when he left her she was alive and well. But when the following client arrived, he found her dead. Who killed her, and why? Ricciardi has to untangle a complex knot of greed, frustration, and jealousy in order to solve the riddle of Viper’s death. But his investigation is scuttled at every turn by the conflicting emotions that lurk beneath the surface of a city that lives on passion.
De Giovanni’s mysteries unfold with such sinuous ease that they seem to write themselves. They enchant, surprise, enthrall. Commissario Ricciardi, who possesses the dubious gift of being able to see and hear the last seconds in the lives of those who have suffered a violent death, is one of the most fascinating investigators to appear on the international crime fiction stage in years. And in Viper, the lustful and boisterous city of Naples has never been more seductive.
Book 7
In the middle of a summer heat wave, as Naples prepares for one of its most important holy days, a renowned surgeon falls to his death from his office window. For Commissario Ricciardi and Brigadier Maione it is the beginning of an investigation that will bring them into contact with the most torrid, conflicting, and enduring of human passions. In the world Ricciardi and Maione are about to enter, infidelity appears inextricable from the most joyful expressions of love, and, this interdependence sows doubt and uncertainty in both men, compromising their personal lives.
Ricciardi is one of the most intriguing and unique figures to appear in crime fiction in recent years. He possesses the dubious gift of being able to see and hear the last seconds in the lives of those who have suffered a violent death. This makes him an unusually effective investigator, but it also renders real human relationships almost impossible. He is a classic noir hero and the cursed son of a city that, for all its Mediterranean splendor, is a perfect noir setting.
In this new installment in the Commissario Ricciardi series, Maurizio de Giovanni proves once again why he is considered one of the best crime writers working today.
