Pulvis et umbra

On the backdrop of Manzini’s long-awaited new novel are Aosta and Rome, the opposite poles where Rocco Schiavone’s life unfolds and the threads of the affair we had left at the end of 7-7-2007 are reknotted, when Adele had not yet had justice or vengeance, she killed by mistake by those who thought they were targeting Schiavone, that Enzo Baiocchi who returns to agitate the deputy superintendent’s mind and dreams. And while Rocco is still the object of insinuating suspicions by the top police brass, and reacts by disinteresting himself in every activity of the Aosta police headquarters, the corpse of a transsexual surfaces in the waters of the Dora; first they proceed to search the dead man’s house, and here is the first surprise: the apartment turns out to be totally empty, not a piece of furniture, not a piece of clothing, and not even a sheet of paper, as if it had been sifted through thick and thin. None of the neighbors have noticed the move, everyone pretends not to know; but what is behind the facade of that respectable building in Aosta that belongs in its entirety to a single disturbing owner? When even Judge Baldi decides to gloss over the transsexual’s case, the smell of the Secret Service reaches Schiavone’s nostrils stronger than the smell of pot. On that case that many want to make look like an unimportant murder Schiavone can shed light only by ignoring procedures and acting in his own way; but he also has something else on his mind, finding Enzo Baiocchi on the run to escape Sebastiano’s revenge, a race against time in pursuit of his friend and killer…