Review: Flowers over the Inferno by Ilaria Tuti

Massimo Marini’s first day on the Travenì police force begins with a gruesome murder. In the small village in the Italian Alps, no such crime has taken place for years. When a second victim is discovered, Superintendent Teresa Battaglia has no choice but to show the newcomer the ropes while she tracks a killer. Despite her decades of experience and almost clairvoyant understanding of psychopaths, Teresa soon realizes that these crimes have no basis in her books and studies; this killer is something altogether new, and just as unpredictable.

Hindered by her health, her new partner, and her unheard-of inability to understand the killer, Teresa has so much to resolve in so little time.

Flowers over the Inferno is beautifully dark; a perfect marriage of dazzling prose and a sinister plot. The characters are unique and refreshing; no stereotypical detective lads with their vices and broken families – here is a unique insight into the relationship of an unexpected duo. Our protagonists also unassumingly mirror the concepts of duality that appear regularly throughout the story. His youth and silence against her studied experience and crass outbursts make for interesting drama and welcome breaks in the tension created by a looming, faceless killer that remains an enigma to police and reader alike.

There is also immense satisfaction to be had in the search for the killer; through clever diversions and multiple well-crafted sub-plots, we’re immersed in adventure throughout. In concluding her story, Tuti manages to neatly skirt the pitfalls of predictable plots and anti-climactic finishes that have claimed the pens of many others.

If you read this book, make sure you’re comfortable – you won’t be stopping until the final page.

Flowers over the Inferno by Ilaria Tuti is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, an imprint of  Orion Books, an Hachette UK company, and is available in South Africa from Jonathan Ball Publishers.