The Puppeteer: Commissario Trotti #2

Northern Italy, 1982- Inspector PieroTrottiis breakfasting at a cafe when gunmen drive up andshoot the man sitting at the next table. Was Trotti their actual target? He can’t be sure. The case falls under the jurisdiction of the local Carabinieri and their detective branch, the Nucleo Investigativo, but Trotti decides to make his own inquiries.

The Puppeteeris the follow-up to CWA Dagger-winnerTimothy Williams’s dazzling crime fiction debut,Converging Parallels. This tautly written novel takes us to the depths of a corrupt, scheming Italian society in which bank officials, clergymen, masons, lawyers, and, of course, politicians are all suspect of resorting to criminal activity for personal gain. Only the police are deemed trustworthy, and even they are sorely divided by departmental rivalries and jealousies.