Requiem in La Rossa

A gripping crime thriller

By: Tom Benjamin

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

In the sweltering heat of a Bologna summer, a murderer plans their pièce de résistance....

"Only in Bologna" reads the headline in the Carlino after a professor of music is apparently murdered leaving the opera. But what looks like an open-and-shut case begins to fall apart when English detective Daniel Leicester is tasked with getting the accused man off, and a trail that begins among Bologna's close-knit classical music community leads him to suspect there may be a serial killer at large in the oldest university in the world. And as Bologna trembles with aftershocks following a recent earthquake, the city begins to give up her secrets.

©2021 Tom Benjamin (P)2021 Hachette Audio UK

Critic reviews

"The locale is brought to life...the plot keeps you guessing." (The Times)

"A slow-burning, tense and brooding thriller." (The Herald Scotland)

"Tom Benjamin's debut novel blows the lid off a political cauldron in which Leftist agitators, property moguls, the police and city elders struggle for survival and dominance." (Daily Mail)

"It's an immensely promising debut, which leaves the reader feeling they really know the city." (Morning Star)

Difficult to Follow

I'm not sure if it was a poor translation or just poorly written. I found the plot difficult to follow. Transitions between events were confusing. I found the character description unclear. The Italian names also added to the muddle. The narrator was not the most effective, either. He sounded too old and stuffy.