Books
Puppies for the Bastards of Pizzofalcone

by Maurizio de Giovanni
Europa Editions, July 2020, $18

A baby girl is found buried in a pile of trash, all the stray animals have disappeared from the quarter, and someone has been murdering depressed people who have once contemplated suicide. In the wake of a massive police corruption investigation, the Pizzofalcone precinct has been repopulated by a squad of misfits and outcasts, “the unwanted rejects” from other districts. Now, as political forces murmur about closing the precinct, the Bastards of Pizzofalcone must solve these crimes—and quickly—to renew public confidence.

Puppies, the fourth installment in Maurizio de Giovanni’s Bastards of Pizzofalcone series, can be read as part of the series or as a standalone novel. For de Giovanni, who is also the author of the acclaimed Commissario Ricciardi novels, Pizzofalcone serves as a microcosm of Naples, an atmosphere by turns beautiful, romantic, ugly, dangerous, innocent, and evil.

De Giovanni is a smart and skillful plotter, but his novel’s strength is its compelling cast of colorful characters, cops, and criminals. Among these are Lieutenant Lojacono, a brilliant investigator who longs for his native Sicily; Officer Francesco Romano, nicknamed “the Hulk,” who has been exiled to Pizzofalcone after taking out his rage on a drug dealer; and, the vain and boastful Marco Aragona, who models himself after the hero of his favorite cop show. De Giovanni’s novels should appeal to readers of character-driven police procedurals like Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novels.

As the plots and subplots are connected and interwoven in Puppies, we see the Bastards come together as a team and a surrogate family, allowing de Giovanni to develop an insightful and compassionate commentary on society’s strays, the left out, and the left behind.

Trey Strecker
Teri Duerr
6992
de Giovanni
July 2020
puppies-for-the-bastards-of-pizzofalcone
18
Europa Editions