-
Seasonal Offer:
This title is part of our Seasonal Offers promotion.
The Dogs of Rome
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"A sizzling-hot debut that deftly weaves together corrupt politicians, organized crime, and centuries-old tradition." "--Entertainment Weekly"
"All of the players in the novel come across as completely believable, because the author avoids the stereotypical, and emphasizes the quirkiness in both large and small characters. The fast-moving plot has several interesting twists, and the tone is tongue-in-cheek. This is the first in a series of Commissario Blume novels, and anyone who reads this one will be looking forward to the next." "--San Francisco Book Review"
"Guaranteed to whet the thirst of international crime fiction fans. This promising debut is reminiscent of early Michael Dibdin, and that is more than enough to put Fitzgerald's series on your radar." "--Booklist"
"Impressively plotted...those who like gritty crime thrillers with a European flair will be well rewarded.""--Publishers Weekly"
"Commissario Blume is the most appealing detective to come along in years. His genius is that he isn't a hero or an anti-hero, but the kind of living, breathing human being that you only find in the very best novels, detective or otherwise. "The Dogs of Rome" is an irresistible and wholly original piece of crime fiction."--Joe Weisberg, author of "An Ordinary Spy and Tenth Grade"
Product Description
Rome. A city where rules are compromised. And compromise rules. It's one of the hottest days of the year. Chief Inspector Blume is enjoying a rare solitary lunch in a tranquil corner of Trastevere when an unwelcome phone call intrudes with news of a brutal killing a few streets away. Arturo Clemente is no ordinary victim. His widow is an elected member of the Senate, and Blume arrives at the scene to find enquiries well underway, the case itself apparently clear-cut, a prime suspect quickly identified. Blume must fight to regain control of the investigation, but well acquainted with the city's underworld, he knows from bitter experience that in Rome even a murder enquiry must bow to the rules of politics. But when worrying shortcuts sanctioned by one of his superiors are uncovered, it seems events are being manipulated from on high. The complex and uncomfortable truth Blume will unravel will shock even him, and his struggle for justice may yet cost more innocent lives...
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Irish author and Rome resident, Conor Fitzgerald, has produced a first-rate crime novel in "The Dogs of Rome." Ultimately this story of a series of murders and other seemingly unrelated criminal activities are all revealed to be in the unavoidable gravitational pull of organized crime. "Dogs..." opens with a seemingly unrelated murder of an animal rights activist married to a Green Party politician. The victim is struck down in his Roman apartment by an oddly detached and disorganized killer. The tale moves forward through a long and character-rich police procedural that eventually winds up at the foot of a mob boss who sits astride every character's lifeline like an Italian version of Jabba the Hutt (a bit of a metaphorical stretch maybe, but you get the image.)
Author Fitzgerald's protagonist in the novel is Alec Blume; an odd duck in an Italian crime novel as he is an American/Italian who has risen to a senior position (Commissario) within the Roman police force. Blume is a guy with a lot of the usual personal baggage that cops in literature carry, but also, in the Italian context, he is very much like his fictional confreres Montalbano, Brunetti, Zen, etc. in that he is an uncorrupted civil servant operating in a political and professional context that is irredeemably corrupted and entirely disrespected by public that he serves.
The great strength of this debut novel is its wonderful characters--primary and secondary. Fitzgerald has some great insights into human nature as well as some talent for conjuring up extreme--even psychopathic--personalities and tossing them together to get some wild interaction. A secondary theme of this book is the inhumane treatment of animals--specifically dogs trained for fighting. The brutality and utter nastiness of that crime is presented without varnish here, although the obvious poetic justice of revenge by the misused animals is sidestepped by the author. Still, he makes a direct and eloquent point on this especially heinous crime.
"Dogs of Rome" is an excellent book and a pleasurable read. It's good to see another talented writer out there using the always interesting Italy and Italians as the core of a book. I hope that we'll hear a lot more from Fitzgerald and Commissario Blume. Highly recommended.
Author Fitzgerald's protagonist in the novel is Alec Blume; an odd duck in an Italian crime novel as he is an American/Italian who has risen to a senior position (Commissario) within the Roman police force. Blume is a guy with a lot of the usual personal baggage that cops in literature carry, but also, in the Italian context, he is very much like his fictional confreres Montalbano, Brunetti, Zen, etc. in that he is an uncorrupted civil servant operating in a political and professional context that is irredeemably corrupted and entirely disrespected by public that he serves.
The great strength of this debut novel is its wonderful characters--primary and secondary. Fitzgerald has some great insights into human nature as well as some talent for conjuring up extreme--even psychopathic--personalities and tossing them together to get some wild interaction. A secondary theme of this book is the inhumane treatment of animals--specifically dogs trained for fighting. The brutality and utter nastiness of that crime is presented without varnish here, although the obvious poetic justice of revenge by the misused animals is sidestepped by the author. Still, he makes a direct and eloquent point on this especially heinous crime.
"Dogs of Rome" is an excellent book and a pleasurable read. It's good to see another talented writer out there using the always interesting Italy and Italians as the core of a book. I hope that we'll hear a lot more from Fitzgerald and Commissario Blume. Highly recommended.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
The opening chapter of the book, which begins with a murder, was so undramatic that I almost fell asleep. The dialogue between the cops was risible. And you really do not care about the main character, Blume, at all. It makes one wonder how on earth this book ever got published. I wil not be reading any more in this series.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have no idea what crime is like in Rome or how the Rome police function, but I don't care. Conor Fitzgerald has created a world that is easy to believe in and I was happy to go along with it. I have never been to Rome, but the picture Fitzgerald has created makes me feel that I have.
The Dogs of Rome is a densely plotted detective story that involves you totally because, rarely in such a plot-driven story, the characters are real and (some of them) engaging. Commissario Alec Blume is somewhat of an outsider, not because he is a maverick cop (etc. etc.), but because he is an American who was orphaned in Italy as a teenager, so his slight detachment from his peers has a solid and believable reason. There are a variety of villains and crooks, who are clearly differentiated - career criminals, muscle, psychopaths. The victims are also clearly differentiated and some arouse more sympathy than others. There is a hint of corruption in high and low places. I shall not attempt to outline the plot. It is far too complex for that. Suffice to say that it never flags.
I really enjoyed this book and it merited closer reading than many in the genre.
The Dogs of Rome is a densely plotted detective story that involves you totally because, rarely in such a plot-driven story, the characters are real and (some of them) engaging. Commissario Alec Blume is somewhat of an outsider, not because he is a maverick cop (etc. etc.), but because he is an American who was orphaned in Italy as a teenager, so his slight detachment from his peers has a solid and believable reason. There are a variety of villains and crooks, who are clearly differentiated - career criminals, muscle, psychopaths. The victims are also clearly differentiated and some arouse more sympathy than others. There is a hint of corruption in high and low places. I shall not attempt to outline the plot. It is far too complex for that. Suffice to say that it never flags.
I really enjoyed this book and it merited closer reading than many in the genre.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Dogs of Rome
Boring, boring,boring. Bought by mistake thought I'd try it, don't bother with it I never finished it.I did try but it was impossible for me. Sorry
Published 2 months ago by brenda b
A Great Read
This is the best book I`ve read in ages. I liked everything about it, the plot, the characters, the location, and best of all the ending. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Nicholas
Need to continue with the Alec Blume series to get the most out of the...
Decent read but not memorable enough to reach for another Alec Blume novel. Unusually, the killer was revealed very early in the novel without another strong candidate lined up to... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Papillon
New kid on the block
How likely is it that a newly orphaned American teenager would be allowed to carry on living in Rome and grow up to become a senior police detective? Read more
Published 5 months ago by hbw
Reminded me of Dibdin
The story reminds me of the Dibdin Zen series. The dry sarcastic humour and the devil may care attitude of the detective. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Cheryl M-M
Decent Read
The Dogs of Rome is a decent read. I had never heard of the author until picking up this book. The characters were dark, and painted vividly. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Tonya Wells
Great story, multiple typos
I really liked this book, the characters were great and the story reasonably involved and of course it is set in Roma! Read more
Published 9 months ago by Bleakhouse
A great find
I found the first quarter of the book slow going and was tempted to put it aside, but then I reached a chapter which (to avoid giving away the plot) comprised humour, excitement... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Brian Harris
Promising but fizzles out into disappointment.
As someone who long ago tired of American based crime fiction, it was with some doubts that I selected this given Blume's American background but I was swayed by the reviews and... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Barbuto ma quasi calvo
Lots of shocks
If you like detective fiction in the Nordic style but are looking for a different (hotter!) location this is a good one to get. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Ncampe
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
