Italy

Make Thick My Blood by Toni Viola

By Erin Britton

5 June, 2026

Set against the volatile backdrop of Rome, Toni Viola’s Make Thick My Blood blends procedural investigation, political intrigue and personal reckoning into a thriller that is as interested in the moral pressures placed on its characters as it is in solving a crime. As a…

Features

Meet the author: Toni Viola

By crimefictionlover

18 May, 2026

Horse racing. It’s an unusual route into crime fiction but it was a winning bet for former detective Toni Viola. One day, he answered an ad in a racing magazine and began writing articles about the sport. Books on the subject followed, and then he…

Kindle Print Reviews

She Knew Too Much by Victoria Weisfeld

By Paul Burke

3 March, 2026

Full disclosure: Vicki Weisfeld is one of our contributors so you could say that there is a conflict of interest here. On the other hand, how mean would it be not to review her book on the site? So read on to find out more…

Kindle Print Reviews

An Enigma by the Sea by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini

By Paul Burke

13 February, 2026

Translated by Gregory Dowling — A lot of Italian crime fiction in English is dark, mafia-related or snowbound. Manzini, Carlotto, de Cataldo and Roberto Saviano spring to mind. The Fruttero and Lucentini novels are different, lighter, witty, slightly eccentric and colourful but no less steeped…

iBook Kindle Print Reviews

The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan

By Vicki Weisfeld

28 January, 2026

From The Da Vinci Code to The Flatey Enigma, we’ve seen how popular thrillers about decoding ancient texts can be, and Gilly Macmillan’s The Burning Library joins the category. If you can go with the idea that two ancient societies of women have been in…

Features

Marina Cafè Noir 2025 - Sardinia's crime and literature festival

By crimefictionlover

6 June, 2025

What better way to spend the summer solstice than at a noir fiction festival on the Mediterranean. From Friday 20 to Sunday 22 June, Marina Cafè Noir returns to Cagliari on the island of Sardinia. The terrace of the Bastion of Saint Remy is the…

Kindle Print Reviews

Last Night at Villa Lucia by Simon McCleave

By Vicki Weisfeld

8 August, 2024

What could be more appealing than a murder mystery set in an elegant villa high on a hill overlooking the Tuscan countryside? Prolific crime novelist Simon McCleave’s Last Night at Villa Lucia feels like a vacation from the first page, as the villa’s English owner…

Kindle Print Reviews

The Venus of Salò by Ben Pastor

By Erin Britton

4 July, 2024

It’s October 1944 and all is far from well in the Republic of Salò. As the last bastion of Fascism in Italy, the tranquil setting on the shore of Lake Garda belies the turmoil currently engulfing the seat of the German-backed puppet government. As the…

Crime Fiction Lover

Make Thick My Blood by Toni Viola

Meet the author: Toni Viola

She Knew Too Much by Victoria Weisfeld

An Enigma by the Sea by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini

The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan

Marina Cafè Noir 2025 - Sardinia's crime and literature festival

Last Night at Villa Lucia by Simon McCleave

The Venus of Salò by Ben Pastor

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