Italian Rules by Tom Benjamin (Daniel Leicester)

Book Blurb
When Hollywood comes to Bologna, La Dolce Vita turns sweet murder…

A famous Hollywood director arrives in Bologna to remake a cult film and the city’s renown cinema archive decides to mark the occasion with a screening of the original, only to discover it has disappeared. After English detective Daniel Leicester follows the trail of Love on a Razorblade to an apparent murder-suicide, he begins to suspect there may be more at stake than missing negatives – could the film contain a clue to one of the city’s most enduring mysteries? Together with a star from the forthcoming remake, Daniel moves from the glamour of Venice Lido to the depths of Bologna’s secret tunnel system as a sinister network closes in and he learns some people are ready to kill for the ultimate director’s cut.

My Review
Italian Rulesis the fourth book in Tom Benjamin’s Daniel Leicester series. If you haven’t read the previous three it doesn’t really matter, I hadn’t read them either and it didn’t effect my reading experience or my enjoyment of the book. Set in the Italian City of Bologna, Daniel Leicester is a private detective in his wife’s family firm, where their new case is recovering negatives from a cult eighties film Love on a Razorblade. What seems a simple recovery soon leads Daniel into the murder-suicide of a young couple, and maybe a connection to the cover up of a plane disaster forty years ago. With Hollywood arriving to re make the film, Daniel finds himself on the hunt for the negatives that are worth killing for.

As mentioned, I haven’t read the previous three books, but I have just ordered them as my interest is piqued about Daniel’s story and that of his family. Daniel Leicester is well known as the English Detective in Bologna although he has lived there for years and married into an Italian family. I was fascinated in the relationships with in the family; Daniel is a widower with a teenage daughter Rose, who has very expensive Italian tastes, his father in law is still refered to as Commandante even after retiring from the police which still opens doors, and his brother and sister in law who also work for the Private Detective agency. There is a colourful cast of secondary characters including Anna Bloom, the Holywood actress in Bologna for the film, Elettra Fausto actress and relamtion of of the Toni Fausto, and Dolores who works with Daniel.

Tom Benjamin’s writing is detailed and engaging and drew me into the book from the first page. As many of my regualr readers know I love all things Italian, especially books set there. This could make me a bit bias, but I did enjoy the setting of Bologna, and the quick sojorn to Venice. Interestingly Tom Benjamin focuses on the less glamerous side of these cities, the once beautiful palazzo and buildings now run down, the graffiti and squalor of some areas. I found this tied in well with the plot line of a less glitzy side of Hollywood, the corruption and the politics especially concerning the origional film of Love on a Razorblade. The investigation itself goes in so many different directions I had no idea it where it was going to take me so I was kept guessing until the very end.

Italian Rules was an intelligent and compelling read that I read in one sitting as it had me gripped. I loved the film noir setting, the darker side of the film industry and the grittier side to Bologna. To offset this there was the wonderful characters and their relationships, their everyday problems that added a lightness and touch of humour to the book. I’m really excited to find the time to read the three previous book that I have just had delivered and any future books in the series.

I would like to thank Constable Press and Anne Cater from Radom Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour in return for my honest review.