This is an ADVANCE READER'S COPY, UNCORRECTED PROOF. Originally intended for a book reviewer. Softcover in very good plus condition. Mild shelf wear. Fiction. Thriller.

The Deliverance of Evil (Commissario Balistreri Trilogy)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Costantini, Roberto

Mystery

Quercus Publishing

Tripoli, 1960s. During the years in which post-colonial Libya fell prey to the sprawling greed of the West, Michele Balistreri suffered a succession of blows that would scar him for life. The death of his mother; the unspeakable horror that befell his best friend's family; his father's role in Gaddafi's ascent to power; and the innocent blood pact that would corrupt the course of his future. Rome, 1982. In the wake of a ruinous blunder, a ground-down Commissario Balistreri escapes his regrets through sex, alcohol and gambling. His sole responsibilities are now a stilted investigation into the death of a South American student, and a tiresome obligation - as a gratitude to the man who saved his career - to a rising television starlet needing protection from the pitfalls of fame. As the risks to this girl, Claudia Teodori, begin to rise along with her reputation, the sorrows of Balistreri's past also start to push back into his present. Both of their fates are inextricably linked - and this driven, obsessive young woman must help this damaged detective fight a foe that follows her and refuses to forget him.

The Root of All Evil (Commissario Balistreri Trilogy)

The Memory of Evil

GARDNERS VI BOOKS AMS006

Everything started from that day.
The memory of 31 August 1969 has been at the back of Commissario Michele Balistreri's mind for over four decades. It was not only the day that preceded Colonel Muammar Gadaffi's seizure of power in Balistreri's birthplace of Libya, drastically altering his and his country's destiny, but that on which his beloved mother Natalia fell to her death, and the resulting suicide verdict that Balistreri - now Head of Homicide in Rome - has always suspected to be a flagrant cover-up for her murder.
The memory of 23 July 2006 has been at the front of investigative journalist Linda Nardi's mind for the past five years. Ever since her and Balistreri together thwarted a phantom-like killer stalking Rome, Nardi has been intent on shedding further light on the Vatican Bank's shadowy involvement in the abominations uncovered that summer. But now Linda will find her attention diverted to an equally irresistible assignment: the collapse of Colonel Gadaffi's forty-two year dictatorship.
The Memory of Evil is the earth-shattering finale to Roberto Costantini's internationally bestselling trilogy, in which one woman will encounter a long-entombed truth in the rubble of Gadaffi's Tripoli: unearthing a conspiracy neither she, nor the man it was designed to protect, will ever be able to erase from their minds.

The Memory of Evil (Commissario Balistreri Trilogy)

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Winner of the Scerbanenco Prize for the best Italian crime thriller, The Deliverance of Evil is a masterful psychological thriller about an edgy policeman’s personal evolution—or devolution—as seen through the lens of a devilish case that consumed him early in his career and continues to haunt him twenty-four years later. With excitement over Berlusconi rise to power and Italy in a state of gleeful and frenzied anticipation over the national soccer team’s improbable run to the 1982 World Cup, Italians are filled with hopeful feelings. The night before the big match, Elisa Sordi—an attractive eighteen year-old employed by the Vatican—vanishes. The case falls to a young, hedonistic post-Fascist officer named Michele Balistreri. Headstrong and ambivalent about spending his life as a policeman, Balistreri is annoyed to be interrupted during the festivities and takes the case lightly. But when Elisa’s tortured corpse surfaces in the Tiber, Balistreri doubts he will ever be able to forgive himself for his inattention. After the man he arrested for the murder is exonerated, and tantalizing links to the Vatican and top right-wing politicians ignored, the case is never solved. Despondent, Michele spirals into drinking and depression. Twenty-four years later Italy is victorious once again in the World Cup, but the nation has changed. The balloon of optimism from the Eighties has deflated, and the now-gloomy nation suffers under the arrogant and corrupt Berlusconi government. A weak economy and chaotic immigration policies that have inflamed racist sentiments provide a stark contrast to the last time Italy tasted sweet soccer victory. Disturbingly, more lax divorce laws have spawned a trend of “revenge” violence against women who try to assert their independence. Suddenly Sordi’s mother apparently commits suicide, and then a slew of female corpses begin to turn up all with a letter of the alphabet carved into their bodies. The apparent hate behind the murders causes Balistreri to realize that the case that has haunted for twenty-four years may be heating up again, and with a newfound sense of purpose he charges into his work: the opportunity to redeem the darkest part of his past. The murders continue, and what initially seemed to be the work of a lone psychopath reveals itself to be part of something much bigger and more dangerous. Finally Balistreri realizes that the letters marking each victim are spelling out a chilling message.

The Deliverance of Evil (A Commissario Balistreri Mystery)

Quercus

In the 1960s, post-colonial Libya fell prey to the sprawling industrial greed of the West, driven by the discovery of oil. While the modern quarter of Tripoli, built by the Italians, was small and affluent, the rest of the city--like the rest of the nation--was left to fend for itself amid the arid, sandy stretches of North Africa. As tensions mounted between eastern and western ideals, terror began to supplant justice, and acts of religiously motivated violence began to fill some of Tripoli's darkest corners. Against this backdrop, the teenaged Michele Balistreri--a smart young man plagued by thuggish tendencies and a youthful attraction to Fascism--suffered a succession of personal blows that would scar him for life: the death of his mother; a terrible tragedy that befell his best friend's family; and the consequences of his father's role in Gaddafi's rise to power. Worst of all, an innocent blood pact he made as a teenager would come to haunt him as an adult. Four decades later, journalist Linda Nardi is hard at work investigating the shadowy history of the Vatican Bank's involvement in Libya when she suddenly finds her attention diverted to an irresistible story assignment: covering the collapse of Colonel Gaddafi's forty-two year dictatorship. It is only a matter of time before Nardi's research and Balistreri's investigative work as a police commissario bring them into contact. Together they unearth a deadly conspiracy that goes to the top of Rome's power structure that neither of them will ever be able to forget.

The Root of All Evil

World Literature

Winner of the Scerbanenco Prize for the best Italian crime thriller, The Deliverance of Evil is a masterful psychological thriller about an edgy policeman’s personal evolution—or devolution—as seen through the lens of a devilish case that consumed him early in his career and continues to haunt him twenty-four years later. With excitement over Berlusconi rise to power and Italy in a state of gleeful and frenzied anticipation over the national soccer team’s improbable run to the 1982 World Cup, Italians are filled with hopeful feelings. The night before the big match, Elisa Sordi—an attractive eighteen year-old employed by the Vatican—vanishes. The case falls to a young, hedonistic post-Fascist officer named Michele Balistreri. Headstrong and ambivalent about spending his life as a policeman, Balistreri is annoyed to be interrupted during the festivities and takes the case lightly. But when Elisa’s tortured corpse surfaces in the Tiber, Balistreri doubts he will ever be able to forgive himself for his inattention. After the man he arrested for the murder is exonerated, and tantalizing links to the Vatican and top right-wing politicians ignored, the case is never solved. Despondent, Michele spirals into drinking and depression. Twenty-four years later Italy is victorious once again in the World Cup, but the nation has changed. The balloon of optimism from the Eighties has deflated, and the now-gloomy nation suffers under the arrogant and corrupt Berlusconi government. A weak economy and chaotic immigration policies that have inflamed racist sentiments provide a stark contrast to the last time Italy tasted sweet soccer victory. Disturbingly, more lax divorce laws have spawned a trend of “revenge” violence against women who try to assert their independence. Suddenly Sordi’s mother apparently commits suicide, and then a slew of female corpses begin to turn up all with a letter of the alphabet carved into their bodies. The apparent hate behind the murders causes Balistreri to realize that the case that has haunted for twenty-four years may be heating up again, and with a newfound sense of purpose he charges into his work: the opportunity to redeem the darkest part of his past. The murders continue, and what initially seemed to be the work of a lone psychopath reveals itself to be part of something much bigger and more dangerous. Finally Balistreri realizes that the letters marking each victim are spelling out a chilling message. From the Hardcover edition.

The Deliverance of Evil

Tú eres el mal (Comisario Michele Balistreri 1) (Spanish Edition)

Grijalbo

La falena e la fiamma

Longanesi

Tu sei il male. La Trilogia del male

Marsilio Editori spa

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