The Death of a Mafia Don

Michele Ferrara, Book 3

By: Michele Giuttari

Narrated by: Sean Barrett

A bomb explodes in the centre of Florence, hitting the car of Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara of the elite Squadra Mobile. The attack rocks the ancient city to its foundations. Ferrara was clearly the target - and he did, after all, just controversially imprison notorious Mafia boss Salvatore Laprua.

A week later, another bomb explodes - bringing tragedy for Ferrara and a determination to find the culprit. But that same morning, Salvatore Laprua is found dead in his prison cell. So who is the mysterious influence behind the bombings - someone even the Mafia fear?

An ingenious, gripping mystery, The Death of a Mafia Don has been a best seller in Italy and across Europe. Written by former Florence police chief Michele Giuttari, it offers a fascinating insight into the secret world of the Mafia and of life in Florence.

©2010 Michele Giuttari (P)2011 Hachette Digital

Why the buzz about Michele Giuttari?

Sean Barrett as narrator, does have a voice and style for many European writers. He is good.


The translation does have a few "iffy" snags that kind of gave me me a few mental ' what is this?' pauses and I lost the plot for a minute/nano second and had to rewind to see what I had missed. Like the co ordinates on a map.. grid reference.. In a lot of ways I really found such difficulties charming. English is not an easy language so I am told. The story does move very fast at times so even the moments of sorting out "inches" from "minutes" can leave a villain on the winning team.

It seems the stories are early 2000's based and so a little dated. (Is evil ever dated?) They are interesting and thank heaven they do not follow the US formula in writing style. I wish my Italian was good enough to read in the original.

While Sean Barret is narrating I will download more books in future because I find the stories interesting from a cultural point of view. Not in the class of Gianrico Carofiglio (A Fine Line) though maybe a better translation to English could lift the nuance and possibly humour that seems to be lost..in translation..
So just three stars.