I read this ARC in exchange for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

What can I say?
Set in Italy, with an Italian background this would always attract me

Wonderfully written
evocative, vivid language painted wonderful pictures in my head

Oh I loved this !!

Tom Benjamin's mysteries make me think of Donna De Leon's: both are set in an Italian city they know very, both are realistic (I'm Italian, trust me) and both are not translated into Italian so they will ever know.
Bologna is fascinating town, full of art and less tourists but it's also the perfect setting for mysteries or thriller as there's a mix of politic, university students, and everything that makes this town an unicum.
This is not the best novel in the series but it's a well plotted and gripping mystery that kept me guessing. I was glad to catch up with Daniel and thoroughly enjoyed the story.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

I’ve followed this series since the start and have enjoyed the rich , elegant style of Tom Benjamin’s writing and his Daniel Leicester character.

Unfortunately I think my journey with the series has reached a conclusion as I found this just trying to be to literary. Tom Benjamin is clearly a very intelligent author but in this book I felt a bit lost and in honesty, not particularly interested in the story of the missing movie negative.

The characters also feel a little stunted, like there isn’t anywhere else for them to go.

Sadly, not for me this time but it’s a series I have enjoyed thoroughly up to now and hope other readers don’t struggle like I have.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for a review copy of Italian Rules, the fourth novel to feature Bologna based PI, Daniel Leicester.

An American director is coming to Bologna to remake the Italian cult movie, Love on a Razorblade, and to commemorate it the city is going to screen the original director’s cut, except the original is missing. Daniel Leicester is asked to investigate and it soon leads him to an apparent murder suicide and some personal danger. He suspects that there may be more in the original film than the Final cut, perhaps even clues to a dark event in Italy’s past.

I thoroughly enjoyed Italian Rules, which mixes the modern with the past and produces some unexpected results. The answers to the mystery of the missing film and the deaths really appealed to me as it produces some twists in a quite mundane motive. It seems neat and elegant in its overkill.

The novel is told from Daniel’s first person perspective and that works well as he is the archetypal outsider, married in to and working with an Italian family, but not quite fully integrated. It’s a cultural thing and I can’t help but feel that it’s because he’s not quite devious enough, especially in comparison to his father in law, a former Commandante in the Carabinieri, although he’s learning, especially conspiratorial thinking. It is interesting that he immediately thinks of an old cover up and unsolved mystery when learning more about the director’s cut.

The novel is quite fast paced with more bodies, film stars, Italian history and a higher level of violence than I was expecting. It switches between the investigation and a friendship with the American star of the remake, Anna Bloom. Befittingly she has the best lines and one star turn, but, really, she’s superfluous to the main event. Still, she’s fun. The investigation rolls out gradually as more information is uncovered, so the fast pace comes from the related action and threat of violence. It held my attention from start to finish.

Italian Rules is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

This is the fourth book in the Italian private eye Daniel Leicester series and continues to follow the exploits and adventures of the detective and his team and family. This story follows the disappearance of a reel of film related to a movie called Love On A Razorblade and a movie crew in Bologna recreating the film . This is a fast paced tale with a surprising body count. A story of revenge and retribution and weaving some recent Italian history within the story results in a good “ old - fashioned “ private detective read including a Hollywood star and mercenaries. There are lots of plot twists and quite a number of characters to focus upon.This is certainly a different style read to Philip Gwynne-Jones and Donna Leon. Unlike the previous three books this one didn’t have the atmosphere of Bologna that previously shone through. But still a good escapist read