Black Run

The internationally acclaimed crime thriller set in the Italian Alps: "Written in a style both colorful and ironic [by] a great storyteller" ( Suspense Magazine). Getting into serious trouble with the wrong people, deputy prefect of police Rocco Schiavone is exiled to Aosta, a small, touristy alpine town far from his beloved Rome. The sophisticated and crotchety Roman despises mountains and snow as much as he disdains his superiors and their petty rules. But when a body is discovered on a ski run above Champoluc, Rocco is once again at home—on the trail of a killer. Identifying the victim is a challenge in itself, complicated by Rocco's ignorance of local customs and history. As he encounters the enigmatic folk of Aosta—and a few beautiful locals eager to give him a warm welcome—Rocco realizes that murder is never a simple affair. "The ranks of impressive Euro Noir novelists is swelled by the gritty Antonio Manzini, whose Black Run . . . underlines its genre-credentials with a superstructure of diamond-hard crime writing." — Financial Times