This is a novel that grabs the reader’s attention and doesn’t let go until the last improbable plot twist. As with many thrillers that attempt to create and untangle a worldwide conspiracy --- while leaving a few threads to sew up in the sequel --- the narrative is far too convoluted to either remember or describe, but is absorbing in the moment.

The author is an Italian writer of a series of bestselling books with his own avatar as the protagonist. In this new series, started in 2017 with KILL THE FATHER, and now KILL THE ANGEL, there is an elaborate backstory that haunts the main protagonists, becoming the driving force of this narrative. Sandrone Dazieri thoughtfully weaves enough of it into this new book to make the characters’ motives comprehensible and their personas memorable.

"This is a novel that grabs the reader’s attention and doesn’t let go until the last improbable plot twist."

Deputy Chief Colomba Caselli and her consultant frenemy, Dante Torre, are back again, with their substantial emotional scars and, in Dante’s case, his gloved hand that hides the physical scars. This time, they’re investigating the bizarre death of a group on a Rome-bound train. While ISIS claims credit, nothing about the story seems quite right, from the video posted to the supposed saboteurs. Colomba’s boss is supportive until it’s apparent that his DPC goes far beyond her authority to find the true culprit.

The trail of investigation leads from Milan to Berlin and then to Venice, with Colomba and Dante evading not just the real mastermind, but also the police. When the real story begins to emerge, touching on Russian gulags, multinational mercenaries, obscure medical syndromes and psychopharmacology, they turn briefly to their colleagues, but it’s an uneasy relationship, in which betrayal is around every corner.

The denouement is appropriately flashy, set during a fancy party at a Venice palazzo, with bodies and explications multiplying at dizzying speeds. The loose threads are frustrating, but presumably are there to set up the third volume in the series, which readers of KILL THE ANGEL will doubtless want to read.