City of Fear
David Hewson
Delacorte, May 25 2010, $25.00
ISBN: 9780385341509

At the same tourists are flocking to Rome for the summer, the G8 summit meeting is beginning. Security is tight yet an assault on a government vehicle leads to the killing of one occupant and abduction of Ministry of Interior official Giovanni Batisti.

The country is in shock while the world is as stunned. Detective Nic Costa and his Questura team drop everything to investigate. However, they are quickly removed from the inquiry and placed on protective service duty insuring the G-8 participants remain safe. When they attempt to conduct any investigation, the Ministry of Interior's security chief and a powerful prime minister interfere. Meanwhile Italy's President Sordi directs Costa to look into the Blue Demon terrorist group that demands a return to the ancient Etruscan society; to achieve this they kill government officials. Costa does not need to be an experienced law enforcement official to know nothing is quite right, but how to proceed when everyone seems to be watching is elusive.

This is a great Italian police procedural thriller that showcases how much interference government officials can do to harm or prevent an investigation especially during a major international event that is used to further fog the scenario. Fast-paced and loaded with terrific plausible twists and spins, sub-genre readers will appreciate Costa's latest case as he and his Questura squad struggled with leadership preventing them from doing their job.

Harriet Klausner