Blog Tour: Italian Rules – Tom Benjamin

Italian Rules is the fourth in Tom Benjamin’s critically-acclaimed Bologna-set series featuring British private detective Daniel Leicester. 

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.

Tom Benjamin grew up in the suburbs of north London and began his working life as a journalist before becoming a spokesman for Scotland Yard. He later moved into public health, where he led drugs awareness programme FRANK. He now lives in Bologna. Follow Tom @tombenjaminsays on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook

My thoughts: while this is the fourth book in a series, it can be read as a standalone or you can tuck into the whole series.

I love the recent proliferation of crime novels set in Italy, this one in Bologna – at the famous film archives (or at least a version of them) where the negatives of a classic of the giallo genre has gone missing. Do the archives have a thief in their midst or is something much bigger going on?

A remake is due to be shot in conjunction with the director’s family – indeed the new director is married to the great-niece of the original, and is a fan. But the family have secrets, and some of those might be on the missing film.

While hunting down the negatives, and almost getting killed, PI Daniel Leicester finds a couple of bodies and squires a glamorous American actress around town, waiting for the other shoe to drop. His Italian relatives are on hand to help out with the investigation, although his sister-in-law is about to give birth and his daughter Rose is a little starstruck.

The case becomes more complicated and complex as he digs, and about a lot more than just a missing film. Secrets, dodgy dealers of Nazi memorabilia, affairs of the heart and a link to a truly strange real life case are all woven in to this clever and twisting series of crimes. Very enjoyable.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.