A refreshingly differentstory set in Bologna, Italy which made it all the more appealing as i recognised many of the descriptions.
Lots of political intrigue and police corruption. A great start to a series, will look out for the next.

I really enjoyed this booked.

Admittedly, it was a little slow to get going but the pedestrian beginning is used effectively to introduce the reader to the characters and their situations.

The setting of Bologna is described well.

Looking forward to more books in the series.

I loved this book, I adore Italy and the crime genre so it was a win win for me.

The author really does well in portraying Bologna and Italian culture. When a body is found in a canal, PI Daniel Leicester is persuaded to have a look at the case.

Authorities are not keen on the case being investigated but Leicester, is undeterred and soon finds himself following several leads that will go back decades. Can actions in the past have lead to the man’s death?

A beautiful book that is very well written and makes me want to go to Italy immediately.

An excellent and fascinating book that kept me hooked till the end.
It's realistic, well researched, gripping and entertaining and I was left wondering if the author lived in Bologna because the descriptions and the characters are so realistic, one of the best mystery set in Italy I read in quite a long time.
The plot is well crafted, full of twists and turns, and the characters are well thought.
I can't wait to read other books by this author and I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This crime novel set in the historic city of Bologna delves deep into the gritty history of the city.

The protagonist of the story is Daniel, a former investigative journalist who now works with his father in law at the family Investigative agency. Daniel is hired by Marta, wife of the Mayor, Carlo Manzi to investigate the suspicious death of her lover Paolo Solitudine, a radical political activist.
Daniel uncovers a dangerous history, of radicalism, betrayal and police corruption.

This story started off a little slow but soon picks up with tension and plot twists. The descriptive style really makes you feel like you’re there in the ancient city. Even though there are many different characters introduced, they were all well developed and didn’t lead to any confusion.

I really enjoyed this book and I’m looking forward to reading more in the series. Thanks to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for the digital ARC.

With thanks to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for a digital copy of this book. I am a great fan of literary detectives and always ready to welcome a new detective to the genre.
‘ An English detective in Italy has certain advantages. For a start, Italians adore the British...admired them for representing everything they believe they are not: sober, pragmatic and trustworthy. ‘ Thus Benjamin establishes the credentials for his new detective, Daniel Leicester. Daniel possesses all three of those qualities: he is a widow with a young child; fluent in Italian; working in a private detective agency after years being a journalist. He is ‘a stranger in a strange land’, investigating the suspicious death of a political radical, unraveling a case deeply embroiled in politics and corrupt property dealings. Daniel is told, ‘This is not England, this is not fair play’, and indeed the novel presents an often violent and shocking picture of Italian police, politicians and civic leaders. The novel is set in Bologna and the sense of place is very powerful with extensive descriptions of the city, its buildings and infrastructure, the heavy furnishings of its dark apartments I greatly enjoyed reading A Quiet Death - there’s a pace and tension as the investigation unfolds, a powerful depiction of political corruption and a human back story of Daniel and his family building up their lives after their loss. Daniel is an interesting addition to the world of literary detectives. I particularly liked the way in tricky or dangerous situations Daniel was clearly tense or frightened and this added to the tension about how, or whether the situation would resolve. I very much hope Daniel will have another case and I do think this would be rather a good film.

"Bologna is the second most likely place to get robbed in Italy, after Rimini" is a quote from Daniel Leicester the English ex journalist who is now helping out with his father-in-law's detective agency. The family is of course all important in Italy and here we have the whole tale told - but by an Englishman. Daniel had met his Italian wife Lucia and married her 12 years ago and now lives in Bologna. But his wife was tragically killed and so he and his 13 year old daughter Rose now live in a somewhat idyllic family gathering with father-in-law who was an ex Police Chief.
Setting the scene well the author (who also now lives in Bologna and was previously a spokesman for Scotland Yard) has sewn up the crime thriller based abroad very well. The death of a local anarchist Paolo Solitudine is the latest grisly crime when the decomposed body is found and links with politics, politicians and of course general corruption in Italian society start to be unravelled.
Good descriptions of Bologna streets - which are rightly described as less well know than Venice or Rome - will make readers (and of course the author and publishers) feel more stories could be told and that as much as Venice has captured the literary ex pat market for Donna Leon so might this do the same for Tom Benjamin.
Read during the current Coronavirus lockdown I looked to this title as I love Italy and have been saddened by the scenes of death amongst their citizens in a world where 'family' is strong with ties and there have already been stories of the Mafia coming to help the elderly and poor with food and finance.
I have never visited Bologna but the sights and smells have certainly made it attractive to me through this novel. I can see others following although do wonder when (or if ever) we might all tire of the crime thriller placing itself in yet another glorious cultural and scenic European iconic city. The characters hold the plot well and maybe the intimacy of the family strand of this novel could provide a twist in the tale to produce sequels. Enjoyable read which I'd recommend.

I found this just a little bit slow. It also felt just a tad out of place and didn’t feel like a first book in a series. I also couldn’t get to grips with the characters. So I am sorry to say it fell a bit flat and stale.

'The door opened onto a small park. I shouldn't have been surprised - the city was built around its hidden spaces.'

A promising start to what will be, hopefully, a series. Our setting is Bologna: 'not only La Grassa, the fat, and La Dotta, the learned, but also, La Rossa, the Red.' Set against the backdrop of the famous university and an old town desperate to reinvent, and renovate, itself for the tourist market, it is also a city where the past lives on, in this shape of its partisan and Communist past which cast a shadow over the events in the novel.

Our intrepid PI, Daniel Leicester, is an Englishman who married his Italian wife Lucia, with whom they had a daughter Rose. Now a widow, Daniel works with his father-in-law Giovanni, Bolgna's ex-police chief, still well-regarded enough to be called the Comandante. Their company, Faidate Investigations, is hired by the wife of the mayor to look into the suspicious death of a local activist, Paolo Solitudine, which opens up a whole can of worms. As Daniel battles to find the truth he has to deal with police and political corruption, an angry gang of protestors and the long shadow of 1970s Italian politics.

This is a thoroughly engaging and well crafted crime thriller. The setting is certainly authentic, and adds a layer of reality and atmosphere to the events; the characters, outside the stock two-dimensional cops and hoodlums, are well rounded and add a very personal touch to Daniel's investigations. He is a very human central character, suitably flawed and emotionally damaged, but a loving father and dutiful family man. His status as both an outsider and a man with Italian family puts him in a certain position:
'An English detective in Italy has certain advantages. For a start, Italians adore the British - or rather, at least until they made a hash of Brexit - deeply admired them for representing everything they believe they are not: sober, pragmatic and trustworthy.'
The first-person narrative also brings the reader closer to Daniel, through whose eyes we see events and make the connections as he does.

Sometimes you just need a good escape into a crime novel, with a suitably foreign setting as a backdrop, and a nice tying up of loose ends for a conclusion. There is plenty here to look forward to more in the series, and I can't wait. Thoroughly recommended.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in advance of the paperback release.)

Tom Benjamin begins a terrific crime series set in the beautiful Italian city of Bologna, with a British PI, Daniel Leicester, a former investigative journalist, having lost his wife, Lucia, with a teen daughter, Rose. He has chosen to live with his Italian family, preferring their culturally close knit family structure. He works with his father-in-law, a now retired Comandante, with his close links with the police with whom he has a collaborative relationship, the titular head of their Faidate Investigations agency, where his brother-in-law, Jacapo, is also employed. Paulo Solitudine's body has been discovered under Bologna's underground canal system, and the Mayor, Carlo Manzi's wife, Marta Finzi, calls in the agency to find out what happened to Paolo, suspecting her husband may have had a hand in his death. Paolo was her lover, a radical political activist, who spent 7 years in prison for attempted robbery.

The mayor is promoting the development of the historic and medieval Bologna, claiming that this is instrumental and necessary in securing its future, with property developers looking to redevelop the abandoned and dilapidated buildings. Fiercely resisting his agenda is the still beating heart of Bologna's radicals and anarchists, located at the back of the Osteria della Luna, of which Paolo was an integral part. They see this as a continuation of the powerful elites corrupt attempts to prosper whilst slamming the door on and excluding ordinary Italians. Daniel finds himself uncovering a murky and dangerous history of radicalism that goes back to the 1970s and 1980s, of agent provocateurs, betrayal, police corruption, black squads, and black money, where some feel free to act as judge, jury and executioner, a world which he discovers his family is indelibly tainted with.

Benjamin establishes his characters and his location with aplomb, his research is impressive as he utilises the history of Bologna's political and social history through his characters and Paolo's journal in his terrific blend of fact and fiction in the novel. His rich descriptions of Bologna make the city come alive for the reader, and his protagonist, Daniel, is a family man, with a foot inside Italian society, whilst maintaining the sense of being an outsider, a man with a strong sense of morality, compassion, as can be seen in his relationship with the young Dolores, and justice. This is an impressive beginning to the series, I adored the Italian location and Daniel and his family, it is an entertaining, compulsive and well plotted crime read. I am already looking forward to the next in the series! Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for an advance copy of A Quiet Death in Italy, the first novel set in Bologna to feature PI Daniel Leicester.

The Mayor’s wife, Marta Finzi, asks Daniel and his father-in-law to investigate the death of her lover, left wing activist Paolo Solitudine. The Police believe his death was an accident, his fellow activists believe the Police murdered him and Daniel comes to believe that there is more to Paolo than anyone suspects.

I enjoyed A Quiet Death in Italy after a while as it is a book of two halves, slow to start then quite exciting as the action ramps up and the plot comes together. The novel is told in the first person from Daniel’s point of view which is a good idea as the reader can work the case alongside him and see what he sees. It gives the novel an intimate feel and at the same time allows for a certain objectivity as he is an outsider, an Englishman with an Italian family.

I found the first half of the novel slow and quite unappealing. I have little interest in corruption (what else in Italy?) or the idealism of The Red Brigade or the modern protest movement and the novel covers these elements at length to set the scene. There is also a sort of ambiguity built in to the narrative and I never really felt on solid ground. I’m glad, however, that I persevered as the second half is much more interesting. The reader has all the information required by then so it’s more a matter of putting it all together. It is full of action, twists and doesn’t pull any punches with betrayal being the name of the game.

The novel doesn’t paint a glamorous picture of Bologna showing as it does the rot below the picturesque surface. The corruption, though, is of a different magnitude with its roots in the anarchy of the 1970s. This is explained, well perhaps not explained, signposted might be a better word by excerpts from Paolo’s diary from that era. They are very human and paint a rather naïve picture of the times.

This is a clever novel in the way it is constructed with so many links between the characters and their shared past. Very few of the characters come out of it unblemished and that’s a touch depressing but power and influence require a certain ruthlessness that is never appealing.

A Quiet Death in Italy is an interesting read and I would like to see how the author develops his characters.