Black Run

Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone, the urbane but unlikable protagonist of Manzini’s English-language debut, has been exiled to the town of Aosta in the Alps after a dustup with his superiors in Rome. As casually arrogant as any Manhattanite forced to endure time away from N.Y.C., he hates the cold and the provincials. What keeps him going is investigating crime, and he’s delighted to learn that a body, impossibly mangled, has been discovered by a man grooming a mountain after the day’s skiing is done. Schiavone searches for the murderer among a large cast of suspects, all familiar to one another in the small community and many of them related. An inspired sleuth, he’s also short-tempered, abusive, and mildly corrupt. The largely comic tone is at odds with the case’s gruesome, grisly reality, but many readers will enjoy the unfamiliar Alpine setting and the generally engaging plot. (Apr.)