Big Italy: Commissario Trotti #5

Northern Italy, 1993- After what seems like several lifetimes as a policeman in the Questura, Commissario Trotti is ready for retirement. Soon, he’ll finally be able to fulfill his dream of moving to the countryside villa he co-owns with his cousin, where his daily business will be tending to goats and chickens.

But despite Trotti’s stubbornly old-fashioned investigative methods and his public distaste for the party corruption plaguing Italian law enforcement, there are several people trying to talk him out of retirement. Trotti’s boss, with whom he’s never particularly gotten along, suddenly offers him a golden opportunity as head of the Questura’s new child abuse division.

Meanwhile, Fabrizio Bassi, a reckless, womanizing private detective who worked under Trotti years ago before being kicked off the force, approaches him for help. Bassi has been investigating the death of a murdered doctor, and he has a conspiracy theory that extends to the highest reaches of government. Trotti declines, annoyed by the request. But when Bassi is found in a ditch with a bullet in his head, Trotti decides to take on one last murder case after all.