Persona Non Grata, A Commissario Trotti Investigation

In Italy, a dogged police investigator resists retirement—and plunges into a case that has rocked the city: “Breathtakingly good” (London Evening Standard).

Northern Italy, 1985: Commissario Piero Trotti is fifty-six years old, and though he is widely respected on the police force for his integrity and work ethic, he is not widely liked. The junior detectives he works with transfer because he’s too hard on them; his fellow commissioner is trying to force him out. Even his family has walked out of his life: his adult daughter has moved to Bologna, and his wife has left him for New York. All signs are telling Trotti that he needs to make a change.

Instead, he digs in his heels. The city is in an uproar after a young girl is attacked in her bed by an intruder. Aided by the one junior officer who still listens to him—a dogged, unflinching female brigadier named Ciuffi—Trotti sets to work, trying to figure out the truth . . .

“Trotti is an inspired creation.” —The Sunday Times