ARRIGONI E IL CASO DI PIAZZALE LORETO

A new case for Mario Arrigoni, the inspector with a human face; a great character for a series that has become a cult in the Italian hard-boiled scene. An impeccable historical reconstruction of the Milan of the 1950s.

Milan, 1952. It’s a freezing December morning and around via Porpora they find the body of young woman in her reddish purple FIAT Topolino car, killed by an injection containing a lethal dose of cyanide. The dead woman is Gilda Dell’Acqua, owner of a bar and tobacco shop in piazzale Loreto.

The case is assigned to Mario Arrigoni, chief inspector of the Porta Venezia police station. The suspects belong to the circle of people that hang around the bar – Gilda’s twin sister, a lascivious and fleeting uncle, an elderly and enigmatic marquis, the manager of an illegal betting den and a stunning young woman, a friend of Gilda’s, known for her somewhat saucy attitudes...

The investigation takes the inspector to exciting parties, with plenty of drugs and illegal gambling, but no viable motive emerges and the investigation isn’t going anywhere. Arrigoni is about to give up when his aide inspector Giovine has an intuition – an intuition that gives new impetus to the investigation and brings the case to a truly unexpected solution.

Dario Crapanzano has published five previous mystery novels set in Milan in the 1950s, with Mario Arrigoni, chief-inspector of Porta Venezia police-station, as main charachter.

Other titles in the series: IL GIALLO DIE VIA TADINO, ARRIGONI E LA BELLA DEL CHIARAVALLE, ARRIGONI E L'OMICIDIO DI VIA BRERA, ARRIGONI E L'OMICIDIO DI VIA VITRUVIO, ARRIGONI E L'ASSASSINIO DEL PRETE BELLO.