A fascinating mystery…Manzini is a mature and polished writer…very good at what he does.
The ranks of impressive Euro Noir novelists is swelled by the gritty Antonio Manzini, whose Black Run may sport epigraphs from Schilller and Mayakovsky, but underlines its genre-credentials with a superstructure of diamond-hard crime writing..this is lacerating stuff.
Fine humor and satire…BLACK RUN is set in a beautifully described area of Italy’s ski resort region, with excellent characterizations and plot lines, genuinely funny asides and running tirades from Rocco, a truly good story, written with style and flair.
Surly, moody, individualistic, unconventional, corrupt, abusive, with a dark past, Rocco Schiavone seems to come from the dark metropolis of a novel by James Ellroy.
Forget Montalbano. Commisario Rocco Schivone is grievous, coarse, violent … Wonderful, heartbreaking.”’
Arresting murder mystery.
Antonio Manzini has created an Italian detective to rival Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano with deputy chief Rocco Schiavone.
At last a detective who’s not haunted by personal demons or soaked in booze…He’s a coarse, violent and engaging policeman who would not be out of place in a James Ellroy masterpiece. The tale is deftly told with sharp, cynical dialogue. Let’s hear more of Schiavone.
Manzini’s detective story is a pretext for talking brilliantly about Italian society.
Don’t miss Black Run for the excitement, suspense, and yes, horror of a fine mystery. And meet Rocco who is a man who makes and breaks his own rules.
Written in a style both colorful and ironic, author Manzini proves himself a great storyteller.
2015-02-02
Manzini's first English translation presents an irascible policeman who'd rather be back among the fleshpots of his beloved Rome than clambering over a piste in an Alpine resort collecting evidence in a snowy murder case.The mangled corpse that tears Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone from the side of his mistress, Nora, is identifiable only by a tattoo that matches that of the dead man's wife and business partner, Luisa Pec. Leone Micchichè, the husband who never came home the night before, had been married barely a year, but already he and Luisa had big plans. They ran Belle Cuneaz, a successful mountainside bar and trattoria that catered to the tourist trade. Leone wanted to sell some properties he held jointly with his brother Domenico in order to raise further working capital. Luisa had recently discovered that she was pregnant. All that ended when someone shoved a handkerchief into Leone's mouth, covered him in snow and abandoned him to his fate, which as it turned out was to be run over by a snowcat operator whose machine tore the body to pieces. Rocco's interest in whodunit is dwarfed by his interest in arranging with his old friend Sebastiano Cecchetti to skim his cut from a marijuana shipment they plan to confiscate, or purchasing appropriate shoes for his unwelcome new case, or making time with the attractive clerk who sells him the shoes, or getting reassigned to Rome at the first opportunity, or joining his long-suffering wife, Marina, in dreaming about Rome in the meantime—though his interests in the Eternal City are clearly different from hers. The suspects are thin as onionskin, and the culprit might have been plucked from a hat. But Rocco's detective chops are as authentic as his crabbiness and his matter-of-fact corruption, and the denouement at Leone's funeral has to set some kind of record for calculated bad taste.
Written in a style both colorful and ironic, author Manzini proves himself a great storyteller.” — Suspense Magazine
“Don’t miss Black Run for the excitement, suspense, and yes, horror of a fine mystery. And meet Rocco who is a man who makes and breaks his own rules.” — Bookloons.com
“The ranks of impressive Euro Noir novelists is swelled by the gritty Antonio Manzini, whose Black Run may sport epigraphs from Schilller and Mayakovsky, but underlines its genre-credentials with a superstructure of diamond-hard crime writing..this is lacerating stuff.” — Financial Times
“Manzini’s detective story is a pretext for talking brilliantly about Italian society.” — Andrea Camilleri
“What keeps the reader glued to the story is Rocco. He’s fascinating in his contradictions…Fans of Andrea Camilleri’s Sicily-set “Inspector Montalbano” series will enjoy this debut mystery for its sly humor, vividly drawn characters, and amusing cultural clashes between rugged mountaineers and the more urbane southerner.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“At last a detective who’s not haunted by personal demons or soaked in booze…He’s a coarse, violent and engaging policeman who would not be out of place in a James Ellroy masterpiece. The tale is deftly told with sharp, cynical dialogue. Let’s hear more of Schiavone.” — Daily Mail (London)
“Antonio Manzini has created an Italian detective to rival Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano with deputy chief Rocco Schiavone.” — GQ
“Arresting murder mystery.” — Monocle magazine
“Forget Montalbano. Commisario Rocco Schivone is grievous, coarse, violent … Wonderful, heartbreaking.”’ — L'Uomo Vogue
“Surly, moody, individualistic, unconventional, corrupt, abusive, with a dark past, Rocco Schiavone seems to come from the dark metropolis of a novel by James Ellroy.” — L'Indice
“Rocco Schivone is as bad a cop as Lt. Kojak. Dishonest, potentially violent, intolerant of the rules, but he also has a talent for the job he does … an unusual character … Noir with a touch of dark irony.” — Repubblica
“Fine humor and satire…BLACK RUN is set in a beautifully described area of Italy’s ski resort region, with excellent characterizations and plot lines, genuinely funny asides and running tirades from Rocco, a truly good story, written with style and flair.” — Over My Dead Body (blog)
“A fascinating mystery…Manzini is a mature and polished writer…very good at what he does.” — Reviewing the Evidence
The ranks of impressive Euro Noir novelists is swelled by the gritty Antonio Manzini, whose Black Run may sport epigraphs from Schilller and Mayakovsky, but underlines its genre-credentials with a superstructure of diamond-hard crime writing..this is lacerating stuff.
