"Day after day" by Carlo Lucarelli
The Harvill Press - EUR 16,57

Day After Day
Written by Carlo Lucarelli

Category: Fiction - Mystery & Detective
Publisher: Harvill Press
Format: Trade Paperback, 192 pages
Pub Date: July 2004
Price: $10.99
ISBN: 1-84343-149-1



ABOUT THIS BOOK
A professional killer is at large in the cities of Italy. Code named "The Pit Bull" the killer is a master of disguise and an expert with weapons. He modifies his guns and his bullets are untraceable. His skill with prosthetics, wigs, makeup and padding means that no two victims witness the same before their death and, as with the search for the ever-reincarnating "Iguana" in Almost Blue, once again this is a hunt for a man with no face. Only the picture of a pit bull terrier, from which the killer takes his name, left behind at each murder can link the crimes. Stuck in a rut, the Pit Bull's life continues, day after day. And, day after day, Ispettore Negro works on her seemingly impossible case.
When an innocent young man, surfing the Internet, unwittingly places himself in serious danger from the Pit Bull, Negro uses the man's knowledge of cyberspace to help her close in on her terrifying target.
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In Bologna, a car has exploded, its now legless occupant near death in the centre of the road. As the police arrive at the crime scene, amongst the last words issuing from the victim, the phrase "pit bull" is caught by a carabinieri. In another part of the city, a young man demonstrates a startlingly effective method of escaping the attentions of a would-be mugger. Elsewhere Inspector Grazia Negro and her team break into the apartment they have kept under surveillance for several days, only to find the occupants, a well-known criminal and his wife along with their bodyguard, horribly murdered. The subsequent police investigation shows that the killer is a professional and with an unusual mastery of the art of disguise. Meanwhile another young man, part of a supervisory team checking on the chat rooms of a local internet service provider, notices a new chat room, its ostensible purpose to discuss the acquisition of pit bull terriers.
It's true, there are a few similarities with last year's astonishing Almost Blue, Lucarelli's British debut. Basic plot, three criss-crossing narratives, internet chat rooms taking the place of Simone's radio scanners, and, less resonant for UK readers, Luigi Tenco's 1966 Italian hit Day After Day (covered later by Perry Como!) replacing Chet Baker and Almost Blue. But this is, in fact, the third of the three Grazia Negro books to date, and it was written three years after Almost Blue, and five years after the first, the untranslated Lupo Mannaro (1995). In between Lucarelli won a prize or two for his historical Sicilian crime novel L'Isola dell'Angelo Caduto.
Indeed, it is quickly evident that an even more sophisticated writer is at work. Lucarelli has retained his uncommon talent for rendering the sounds, texture and feel of things. But this time each of the narrative strands is more fleshed out, the characters given more context and more rounded as a result, making for instance the casual sexism that surrounds Grazia more subtle, if no less demeaning. It's a pity that, in the process Lucarelli has lost some of that punkish edge that gave Almost Blue its unique flavour. Thomas Harris meets David Cronenberg, I said at the time. But this time the creep of Cronenberg is missing and for Thomas Harris, read Frederick Forsyth.
No less gripping, of course, and certainly worth your time. Oonagh Stransky's seamless translation never misses a beat. And if you haven't read Almost Blue (now available as a Vintage paperback), read it later.
( Bob Cornwell )
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Ispettore Grazia Negro returns to track down another faceless killer in this intelligently woven plot of sex, violence and suspense from the author of Almost Blue.

Jacket Notes: A professional killer is at large in the cities of Italy. Code named "The Pit Bull" the killer is a master of disguise and an expert with weapons. He modifies his guns and his bullets are untraceable. His skill with prosthetics, wigs, makeup and padding means that no two victims witness the same before their death and, as with the search for the ever-reincarnating "Iguana" in Almost Blue, once again this is a hunt for a man with no face. Only the picture of a pit bull terrier, from which the killer takes his name, left behind at each murder can link the crimes. Stuck in a rut, the Pit Bull's life continues, day after day. And, day after day, Ispettore Negro works on her seemingly impossible case. When an innocent young man, surfing the Internet, unwittingly places himself in serious danger from the Pit Bull, Negro uses the man's knowledge of cyberspace to help her close in on her terrifying target.




REVIEW QUOTES
“A brilliantly psychotic villain…a roller coaster plot…this is a compact and powerful masterpiece, and the first example we have of the Turin school of Italian noir. More, please.”
Guardian

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Carlo Lucarelli was born in 1960 in Modena, Italy. He has written eleven noir novels and his work has been translated into many languages. He hosts a popular late-night television show in Italy that examines unsettling and unsolved crimes. He also teaches creative writing in Turin and edits an online magazine.