A brilliant, methodical investigation of a murder scandal that convulsed the Roman political and social establishment in the 1950s. * * Financial Times * * Death and the Dolce Vita, a hybrid of history and police detection, brilliantly recreates the details of the Montesi affair...as well as being a thriller, [ it] provides an excellent account of the virtues and misdeeds of Europe's most foxy political class. -- Ian Thompson * * Guardian * * The term "eroticism of detail" could have been made for this book . . . an intense, claustrophobic narrative of murder, mystery and scandal worthy of a Verdi opera . . . a page-turning narrative that explores its extraordinary characters and even more extraordinary cover-ups, evasions and dissemblage, reaching to the top of Italian political life. * * Scotsman * * This is microcosmic history at its most effective: Gundle finds big stories in the small print, teasing out the implications for city and nation of this darkly glamorous demi-monde of starlets and playboys, gossip columnists and - paparazzi. -- Boyd Tonkin * * Independent * * Gundle traces a path through the labyrinth of investigation, cover-up and conspiracy theory that followed to show how the peculiar death of a respectable, unassuming carpenter's daughter came to develop into one of the great scandals - and unsolved mysteries - of the Fifties. * * Daily Telegraph * * What Gundle captures so magnificently is how the case shed light on the intersection between the stars of public life and the dark underbelly of post-war Rome. -- Ben Felsenburg * * Metro * * An incredible story and a must-read for crime novel fans. * * Press Association * * Captivating from the first page ... A tragic case, long-forgotten, has been skilfully resurrected in this brilliant expose of murder and scandal. * * We Love This Book * * A must-read for crime novel fans. * * Oxford Times * * A dark, dramatic true-crime story. * * Saga * *
