Lost Girls of Rome (Carrisi)

The Lost Girls of Rome 
Donato Carrisi, 2013
Little, Brown and Co.
4342 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316246798


Summary
A grieving young widow, seeking answers to her husband's death, becomes entangled in an investigation steeped in the darkest mysteries of Rome.

Sandra Vega, a forensic analyst with the Roman police department, mourns deeply for a marriage that ended too soon. A few months ago, in the dead of night, her husband, an up-and-coming journalist, plunged to his death at the top of a high-rise construction site. The police ruled it an accident. Sanda is convinced it was anything but.

Launching her own inquiries, Sanda finds herself on a dangerous trail, working the same case that she is convinced led to her husband's murder. An investigation which is deeply entwined with a series of disappearances that has swept the city, and brings Sandra ever closer to a centuries-old secret society that will do anything to stay in the shadows. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—March 25, 1973
• Where—Italy
• Education—law and criminology
• Awards—Premio Bancarella; Prix Livre de Poche; Prix SNCF du polar;
   Premio Letterario Massarosa; Premio Camaiore di Letteratura Gialla;
• Currently—lives in Rome, Italy


Donato Carrisi studied law and criminology before he began working as a writer for television. The Whisperer (2009), Carrisi's first novel, won five international literary prizes, has been sold in nearly twenty countries, and has been translated into languages as varied as French, Danish, Hebrew and Vietnamese. Carrisi lives in Rome. (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
Carrisi takes an unsparing look at the nature of evil and guilt in this fascinating, if meandering, thriller. Sandra Vega, a forensic photographer with the Milan police, refuses to believe the official ruling that her photojournalist husband David Leoni’s death five months earlier was accidental.... [S]hifts between past and present make the complex plot, which moves at a halting pace, hard to follow.... [A] surprising climax.
Publishers Weekly


Multiple story lines weave a complicated web in this psychological thriller from Italian author Carrisi. Forensic analyst Sandra Vega...receives a phone call insinuating that her photographer husband's death may not have been the unfortunate accident she believes it to be.... Verdict: With a lot of separate subplots, intricate details, and twists, this novel has plenty for readers to follow, but those who can keep up will be rewarded with a satisfying conclusion.  —Madeline Solien, Deerfield P.L., IL
Library Journal
.

Masterful. With each chapter, THE LOST GIRLS OF ROME jumps from one plotline to the next, back and forth between the present and one year ago. Carrisi uses this device to full advantage, building suspense to almost unbearable (and perhaps supernatural) levels, all the way to a truly surprising ending.
Bruce Tierney - BookPage


A secret sect worthy of a Dan Brown novel, the penitenzieri are a group of rogue Catholic clergymen who...mete out justice on their own.... Could this be the story that forensic analyst Sandra Vega’s journalist-husband was working on when he died?...  This multilayered thriller was a best-seller in the author’s native Italy, but, while it may attract attention here, readers are likely to come away something short of satisfied.  —Karen Keefe
Booklist


(Starred review.) With references to the Monster of Florence, a medieval serial murderer, and a secret Vatican sect, Carrisi's second literary thriller draws readers into a labyrinth of evil. In his derelict Rome villa, Jeremiah Smith lies comatose, "Kill Me" carved in his chest. The emergency responder physician begins working and then sees evidence that Smith is her twin sister's killer. With that, Carrisi's noir narrative descends into surrealism, soon drawing in Sandra Vega, police forensic analyst.... A powerful psychological drama.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:

• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)

We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.

top of page (summary)