Leone is a Roman detective whose father once was a leading figure in the Mafia. When he is handed a file of compromising photographs of a high-placed politician, he is faced with the dilemma of hushing up the case and prove his loyalty to a corrupt system. When two bodies are later discovered, linked to the case, his situation becomes impossible to sustain and his past catches up with him as he walks an increasingly more fragile tightrope. The British author who is married to an Italian and now lives there once worked in television and is familiar with the sometimes stench of the corridors of power and sharply evokes her protagonist's moral uncertainties and the poisoned perils running through every strand of Italian society. Has Donna Leon found her match?
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 little 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 multimedia baron, and the most powerful man in Italy. 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.
Nadia Dalbuono has spent the last 15 years working as a documentary director and consultant for Channel 4, ITV, and for National Geographic in various countries. The Few is her first novel. She lives in northern Italy.
