American

The second Leone Scamarcio thriller.As autumn sets in, the queues outside the soup kitchens of Rome are lengthening, and the people are taking to the piazzas, increasingly frustrated by the deepening economic crisis.When Detective Leone Scamarcio is called to an apparent suicide on the Ponte Sant’Angelo, a stone’s throw from Vatican City, the dead man's expensive suit suggests yet another businessman fallen on hard times. But Scamarcio is immediately troubled by similarities with the 1982 murder of Roberto Calvi, dubbed ‘God’s Banker’ because of his work for the Vatican Bank.When, days later, a cardinal with links to the bank is killed, and the CIA send a couple of heavies to warn him off the case, Scamarcio knows he’s onto something big.As disturbing connections between 9/11, America’s dirty wars, Vatican corruption, the Mafia,  and Italy’s violence against its own people begin to emerge, Scamarcio is forced to deal with responsibilities far above his pay grade — in this tightly plotted mystery full of political intrigue.

‘[P]its the little guy against the global forces that shaped the late twentieth and early twenty first century behind the scenes ... a taut, well constructed thriller.’, 'The American is disquieting and illuminating, I found it an utterly absorbing read.', ‘A rollercoaster ride … Unsettling but compelling.’

Nadia Dalbuono has spent the last eighteen years working as a documentary director and consultant for Channel 4, ITV, Discovery, and National Geographic in various countries. The Devil is the fifth book in the Leone Scamarcio series, following The Few, The American, The Hit, and The Extremist. She divides her time between the UK and northern Italy.