A Walk in the Dark - Gianrico Carofiglio

Lawyer Guido Guerrieri, star of Involuntary Witness, is back and this time his client is the victim of battery at the hands of her abusive boyfriend. Unfortunately Gianluca Scianatico is the son of a prominent judge, and nobody else would take the case. Guerrieri, however, likes a challenge, and is a champion for the underdog. But with the defence tarnishing the image of the witness, and intimidation around every corner, how can they succeed? Even with the help of Sister Claudia, a most unusual nun, it doesn't look good.
A slender volume, particularly compared to the legal thrillers of John Grisham and Steven Martini, A Walk in the Dark is crisp and honed - like its predecessor, it combines the basic plot (which would be pedestrian in the hands of a lesser author) with the ongoing exploration of an unusual man, set in a distinctive and compelling sense of place. I want to see the films Guerrieri enjoys (House of Games, a film I hadn't heard of, is one of his ten favourite films), and visit where he lives. In my previous review I said I was surprised by the prevalence of American elements, which I suspected had been inserted for an English-speaking readership in place of Italian originals, but I've changed my mind - for a start, the lyrics of REM's "Losing My Religion" are too tightly bound with the plot at one point to be an artifact.
The protagonist has a great voice, dry and ironic - "You could hear music, even before you got inside the villa. Wind and string instruments, remote, mystical sounds, a few strokes of the gong. The best of Vietnamese New Wave, someone explained to me some time later. The kind of music I love so much I can even listen to it for five minutes at a stretch." Not a word is wasted, and yet everything is captured. More, please! - Alex

Involuntary Witness – Gianrico Carofiglio

Guido Guerrieri has come through the worst experience of his life – the end of his marriage – and is still recovering. He’s sleep-walking though his life, starting to have panic attacks, and can’t concentrate on his clients – not a good thing when you’re a defence counsel.
When Abajaje Deheba, wife of a Senegalese teacher working as a knock-off handbag seller, comes to him, Guerrieri is shaky but holding it together. Abdou Thiam has been charged with the assault and murder of a nine-year-old boy, and is awaiting trial. They can’t afford much, and mounting a real defence will be expensive, but Guerrieri has a strong feeling that Thiam is innocent.
This sparkling novel blends a legal thriller with the gentle story of a man rediscovering himself and his place in the world. At the same time Carofiglio give the reader a strong sense of place – the character and beauty of Italy but also the deep-seated anti-European biases and corrupt infrastructure. There are strong American elements that gave me a little jolt every time (like lyrics from Bruce Springsteen and Dave Gray, references to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Catcher in the Rye) and made me wonder if they’d been changed from the original to convey a familiar and similar flavour of the Italian originals, or if the US has really reached that far into the psyche of another, non-English speaking, nation.
But this was the only thing that at all brought me out of the novel. While reading Involuntary Witness I didn’t feel gripped, in the more traditional way characteristic of thrillers, but instead calmed and intrigued. I found myself reading just a few more pages, just a few more, until the whole thing was gone. It’s evocating, involving, sometimes tranquil, and hopeful, and I look forward to reading the next outing of Avvocato. - Alex