"A quiet death in Italy" by Tom Benjamin

An audio book

Dan (English) works in Bologna as a private detective for the firm run by "Commandante" (an Italian ex-policeman). Before long Dan will be boss. He has a 13 y.o. daughter Rose. His Italian wife (daughter of the commandante) died 3 years before. An old anarchist, Paulo Solitudine, has been found dead in the river. He'd disappeared after a police raid on their squat. The mayor's wife Marta (who lectures about Marx) called the firm for help because she's suspicious of her husband's role in Paolo's death - she'd been having an affair with Paulo. Her husband (Carlo Manzi) has been more attentive to her recently. And a mayoral election is a month away. Dan finds that he's giving money to a pregnant woman, that he's keen on removing the red tape on city development, and has been dealing in property. Dan discovers a passage from Paulo's flat to the river. Paulo's lover Delores finds a notebook in his flat, which she passes to Dan. It's a diary going back to 1979, the time when Paulo, Carlo and Marta were socialist friends. The police take Dan in for questioning, taking his SIM card. They talk to his boss, explaining that they want stability.

We get extracts from Paolo's notebook. He and Marta had slept together (so why had Marta denied it?). Carlo had pointed a gun at him, then himself. The revolutionary group had been short of money so Paulo had been part of a group planning to steal some money. He'd got 7 years for it.

Marta asks him for an urgent meeting. Her husband and the chief of police are there. Having realised that Paolo knew about their property dealings, Carlo and Marta had schemed a revival of Paolo's affair with Marta to keep him quiet. Marta hadn't known about Carlo's affair and had been worried when Paolo died. She'd enjoyed the attention she'd been getting from Paolo. Dan wonders if she's being forced into this and offers her protection.

The commandante, the current head of police, and Dan talk. The police pension fund was dirty money, funding the mayor campaign (he'd been an informer for years). The commandante's firm may have got start-up money from the same source. "We are family," the commandante tells Dan.

At Paolo's funeral there's a protest. At the anarchist's urban farm, "Death of an Anarchist" is performed. The police raid, burning the place down. Dan ends up in an abandoned building with the head of police and a policeman, his subordinate, who he kills. He threatens an anarchist who's been working for him, saying he'll frame him for the policeman death if he doesn't continue working for him. Dan accepts the situation. He ensures that incriminating parts of the notebook are published in time for the election

In the printed book the diary extracts are in italics. In the audio version the distinction between extracts and main narrative is less clear. There's quite a lot about the sights and history of Bologna, which I didn't mind. The view of the Bolognese about themselves and other Italians might be unfair. I like how allegiances are complex. Old and young anarchists aren't always allies. Police and criminals may work together against the destabilising anarchists. I like the set piece of the funeral. I don't so much like "an audible gasp"

Other reviews

• Sylvia Maughan (On first reading, it was difficult to get a clear picture of the plot. This may have been due to the way in which much of the information comes through dialogue. The dialogue itself seems clear and very authentic, but it masks the information that is needed to understand the plot. In some places it is the speed of the storytelling that causes the difficulty.)