From Father Antonio Spadaro to Corrado Augias, new releases in bookstores

Here's a selection of new releases in bookstores, including novels, essays, investigative books, and reports, presented this week by AdnKronos.

Revolving around a case that has been unsolved for more than 30 years and the body of a girl who has never been found, 'The Missing Victim' (Newton Compton), the new investigation by detective Kate Marshall, born from the pen of the English writer Robert Bryndza.

In 1988, student Janey Macklin disappeared in a seedy area of ​​London. Without evidence, the police never found her body, and the case was closed. Now, more than thirty years later, private detective Kate Marshall is approached by a creative agency with a tantalizing question: what if Janey was killed by Peter Conway, the infamous Nine Elms cannibal? The contract is the most lucrative of Kate's career, but it comes at a high price: the investigation uncovers a complicated past Kate would rather forget. As Kate and her partner, Tristan, scour King's Cross for clues, two leads seem to point in the same direction, and the lines between clients and suspects become increasingly blurred. The last person to see Janey alive has already been investigated, tried, and acquitted; Peter Conway is in poor health and rapidly dying. With little to go on, can Tristan and Kate sort through clandestine phone calls, decades-old secrets, and deteriorating DNA evidence to solve Janey's murder, or will she remain one of London's countless missing persons, lost forever in time?

Breton heritage

As the subtitle suggests, "Breton Heritage" by Jean-Luc Bannalec, published by Neri Pozza, tells the story of a series of crimes that occur in Concarneau, Brittany, and which become the latest case for Inspector Dupin. Concarneau, on the eve of Pentecost.

The Breton summer—colorful sails dangling lazily over the sea, vibrant blue skies, a gentle breeze carrying the scent of salt—is about to begin. Brittany's famous "blue city" is ready to dive into the long, sunny days. Inspector Georges Dupin would like to do the same, and in particular, finally dine alone with his partner Claire, but an unexpected phone call shatters their idyll. It's not the police station, nor one of its staff, but Madame Chaboseau, wife of the esteemed local cardiologist. Dr. Chaboseau is dead, having fallen from the large panoramic window of his attic, and now lies in the courtyard surrounded by shards of glass that sparkle like jewels. This time, however, Dupin's old Citroën XM is at least spared the usual miles, because the Chaboseaus live in the same building as L'Amiral, the restaurant where the commissioner loves to go for his favorite dish, entrecôte. The doctor's violent end shakes the city's high society: Chabouseau belonged to one of the most influential families in the area, and neither his wife nor his closest friends can make sense of that crime. Because it is a crime, Dupin is certain of that.

The blue handkerchief

Rusconi's 'Il fazzoletto azzurro', a thriller written by Corrado Augias in the 1980s, returns to bookstores, offering a detailed and evocative reconstruction of the bourgeois class of the early twentieth century.

Rome, April 1915. The country is tense: Italy is about to enter World War I. Young Giovanni Sperelli, a former police commissioner, finds himself embroiled in an investigation fraught with mystery and suspicion that, in another historical moment, might have gone unnoticed: the disappearance of a Russian student living in a small, squalid boardinghouse in the capital. Sperelli, already a protagonist in "The Train from Vienna," finds himself forced to tackle a complex case of international espionage connected to the world conflict that will soon devastate the country.

The Secret Tower of the Eagles

Intrigue, power plays, dynastic plots, and two families united by a secret are at the heart of Marcello Simoni's new historical thriller, 'The Secret Tower of Eagles,' published by Newton Compton.

The novel is set in 1127, on the coast of northwestern Sicily, where two families of Norman lineage, one Christian and the other pagan, one tied to Sicily and the other to the French county of Évreux, are about to intertwine their destinies. Their encounter takes place under the scorching Mediterranean sun, on the beach of Sagitta Castle. On one side, Baron Galgano and his daughter Altruda, lords of those lands. On the other, three brothers recently disembarked from a dragon-headed ship: young Folco, the procuress Fresenda, and a baby named Abelardo. Against a backdrop of war, betrayal, and dynastic tension, the newcomers must quickly adapt to the power games of the Normans of Sicily to find a place in that kingdom of treacherous beauty. But for the courageous Folco of Évreux, marrying Altruda will not be enough to guarantee a future for his relatives. Baron Galgano is, in fact, a man of many secrets. The most frightening of which lies hidden in the oldest tower of his castle.

The Tarot Murders

Barbara Baraldi's new novel, 'Gliomicidio dei tarocchi' (The Tarot Murders), is a magnetic and visionary thriller that blends logic and mystery, just released by Giunti.

Trieste is a city accustomed to silence, but this time it's silent out of fear. A faceless killer has committed two crimes: the victims appear to have nothing in common, except that two tarot cards, Temperance and the Wheel of Fortune, are found at the crime scenes. As soon as Commissioner Emma Bellini sees them, a chill runs through her. Those cards are part of a deck handmade by her sister Maia, an artist and a devotee of esotericism, with whom she hasn't spoken in years. Emma can't avoid the confrontation now. She must find Maia, question her, understand what links the deck to the murders. Maia, however, is terrified: she reveals that she destroyed all the cards long ago, after a dramatic event that upended her life and led her to forever renounce divination. A trauma that left a word etched in her memory, like a distant echo or a branding: Safir. When a third body is found, with another card beside it, the investigation becomes a race against time. While Emma follows the logical threads of a puzzle that seems to defy rationality, Maia turns to her tarot cards to try to make peace with the past. And, perhaps, to find her sister.

The Summer of Spies

Californian writer Tess Gerritsen returns to bookstores with the thriller 'Summer of Spies', published by Longanesi.

Maggie Bird thought Purity was paradise. A quiet village on the Maine coast where she could enjoy retirement, gazing at the ocean and chatting about books with friends, sipping a good martini. What could possibly ruin the idyll? Easy: first the disappearance of a wealthy family's teenage daughter, then a friend and neighbor who is wrongly accused, while the police fumble in the dark. The icing on the cake: a decomposed corpse rising from the waters of a pond. Maggie and the rest of the Martini Club, joined by their retired CIA colleagues, have no choice but to put aside their books and cocktails and start investigating again. But the situation is even more complex and dangerous than it seems at first glance, because all the events that have thrown the town of Purity into chaos are connected. Long-buried secrets are ready to resurface from the sands of the past, and the Lady of Spies must uncover the truth before it's too late.

With the utmost discretion

Icelandic crime novelist Arnaldur Indriðason returns to Italian bookstores with his new novel 'With Maximum Discretion', published by Guanda.

A heavy snowfall has been raging in Reykjavik for days, blanketing everything with white, and shows no sign of abating. Going out in such conditions is inadvisable, but the elderly woman who shows up at the police station that morning believes she's dealing with something truly important. Among her recently deceased husband's belongings, she's just found a 1940s Luger, hidden behind a toolbox in the garage. She'd never seen it before; her husband didn't hunt, and he had no reason to own a gun. Forensic scientists quickly determine that it's the weapon from a 1955 murder in the working-class Múlar neighborhood, the victim of which was a twenty-year-old named Garðar. However, there's nothing to connect the deceased to that murder. So, who did the Luger belong to? Konráð vividly remembers seeing an identical weapon in his father's hands... All the clues point to old acquaintances of the detective, criminals who have run and covered up sordid pedophile rings for years. The net tightens around the culprit, and Konráð feels he's one step closer to the truth. But it will be a truth difficult to accept.

The cat had a hand in it

Sellerio is bringing back to the bookstores 'The Cat Got Its Hand', one of the detective novels that American writer Dolores Hitchens dedicated to the "cat mysteries" between 1939 and 1956.

The arrival of an unexpected letter upends the orderly life of the Murdock sisters and their cat Samantha in Los Angeles. The letter comes from Prudence Mills, the niece of an old friend, who hopes to rely on Miss Rachel's investigative skills. Prudence is terrified: a few days earlier, a disturbing drawing of a mutilated hand, accompanied by cryptic writing, was left under the Mills' door. Rachel's curiosity is immediately piqued, and Jennifer's anxiety, fearing her sister will become involved in a dangerous new investigation. Her protests, however, are of little avail: the sprightly seventy-year-old, donning her signature taffeta, has already packed her bags and a picnic basket for Samantha and is ready to join Prudence Mills in Crestline, where she lives with her sisters. Surrounded by snow and silence, Crestline seems the perfect place for a restorative vacation, but the atmosphere quickly becomes charged with tension and mystery. Amid the snow-capped peaks, an oppressive sense of menace looms, reinforced by unexpected discoveries: Prudence's scarred face, the arrival of new, indecipherable notes, visits from strangers in the night. And a house, the Schuylers', perhaps too close to the Mills sisters' cottage. Amid shady dealings, lies, resentments, and family secrets, Miss Rachel must confront two inexplicable murders and launch an investigation. Her only weapon, as always: her acute ability to read the human soul. A constant ally, more or less conscious, is her cat Samantha, with her silky black fur and green eyes full of complicity. As the case seems to veer into new and inexplicable orbits, Miss Rachel's life will be put in grave danger by a distant enemy, capable, however, of observing her through "the barriers of time and death." An enemy against whom the desperate protection of the gruff Lieutenant Mayhew will have little power. "The Cat Had a Hand in It" is a novel of mystery and suspense, written with the playful elegance that distinguishes the cases of the elderly detective and her inseparable cat. While it's true that all felines, indifferent to pleasing others, tend toward brooding introversion, Samantha the cat—as Joyce Carol Oates wrote—has "just the kind of personality suited to objective investigation and the unmasking of deception." In other words: she has a hand in it. Hard to resist.

From Francis to Leo

The essay 'From Francis to Leo' (EDB - Edizioni Dehoniane Bologna) by Jesuit theologian Father Antonio Spadaro, undersecretary of the Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education, introduces the pontificate of Pope Leo in relation to that of his predecessor Francis.

When the new Pope appeared on the balcony of the blessing, he aroused emotion and anticipation. Since then, much has been said and commented, comparing the styles of Francis and Leo. Beyond the obvious observation that one Pope always succeeds another and carries on his legacy, few have attempted to delve deeper into the connection between the two pontiffs. Spadaro finds it in the theme of restlessness, as a hallmark of contemporary humanity. An Augustinian and also profoundly Ignatian issue, restlessness provides a framework for proclaiming the Gospel today. The reflection is enriched by three texts: an introduction by Bergoglio to a text on Augustine, his homily at the general chapter of the Augustinian order, and a wide-ranging interview in which Prevost discusses his vision of the Church and his relationship with Francis.