An absorbing, if sometimes excessive, study of the banality of evil.
In Cold Blood meets Less Than Zero, Roman style, in a fact-based novel about a notorious 2016 murder.
Though the victim, 23-year-old mechanic Luca Varani, was bludgeoned with a hammer and stabbed with knives over two hours by his assailants, the barbarism of the attack was less noteworthy than the absence of any apparent reason for it. Manuel Foffo, 29, a successful event organizer, and Marco Prato, 29, a failed university student and son of a restaurateur, were hardly killer types. However nasty their intentions were with Luca, who supplemented his income as a gay prostitute, they didn’t plan on subjecting him to more than a “fake rape.” But after ingesting massive amounts of cocaine and alcohol, which they shared with the victim, they gave in to their darkest impulses, killing him just to see what it was like. Lagioia deeply researched the story, using testimony from the largely unreliable main characters as well as friends and family of all three men. He sees the killers and their victim as products of difficult childhoods as well as the rot and despair of a rat-infested Rome, in which “you breathed a tense, angry air that could inspire imprudent behavior.” Most of the novel acts as a prelude to descriptions of the gory murder scene, which is recounted late in the book. Rather than provide a Rashōmon-like complexity to the narrative, all the contrasting views of Manuel, Marco, and Luca tend to bog things down. The author of the Strega Prize–winning novel Ferocity (2017) and host of a podcast based on the Varani murder, Lagioia makes brief appearances as himself in the role of interviewer. He's more effective in that role than in dispensing grand bits of philosophy: “No human being measures up to the tragedies that befall him.”
An absorbing, if sometimes excessive, study of the banality of evil.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781609458317
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer.
Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won’t admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he’s not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova, Henry’s boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero’s obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that’s what franchises are for.
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780316588485
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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