An extraordinary series of murders and political assassinations has marked contemporary Italian history, from the killing of the king in 1900 to the assassination of former prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978. This book explores well-known and lesser-known assassinations and murders in their historical, political and cultural contexts.

This invaluable collection explores the many faces of murder, and its cultural presences, across the Italian peninsula between 1350 and 1650. These shape the content in different ways: the faces of homicide range from the ordinary to the sensational, from the professional to the accidental, from the domestic to the public; while the cultural presence of homicide is revealed through new studies of sculpture, paintings, and popular literature. Dealing with a range of murders, and informed by the latest criminological research on homicide, it brings together new research by an international team of specialists on a broad range of themes: different kinds of killers (by gender, occupation, and situation); different kinds of victim (by ethnicity, gender, and status); and different kinds of evidence (legal, judicial, literary, and pictorial). It will be an indispensable resource for students of Renaissance Italy, late medieval/early modern crime and violence, and homicide studies.

This book is the first monograph in English that comprehensively examines the ways in which Italian historical crime novels, TV series, and films have become a means to intervene in the social and political changes of the country. This study explores the ways in which fictional representations of the past mirror contemporaneous anxieties within Italian society in the work of writers such as Leonardo Sciascia, Andrea Camilleri, Carlo Lucarelli, Francesco Guccini, Loriano Macchiavelli, Marcello Fois, Maurizio De Giovanni, and Giancarlo De Cataldo; film directors such as Elio Petri, Pietro Germi, Michele Placido, and Damiano Damiani; and TV series such as the “Commissario De Luca” series, the “Commissario Nardone” series, and “Romanzo criminale–The series.” Providing the most wide-ranging examination of this sub-genre in Italy, Barbara Pezzotti places works set in the Risorgimento, WWII, and the Years of Lead in the larger social and political context of contemporary Italy.

Murder in the Vatican is two books in one book: The Revolutionary Life of John Paul (the only existing biography of the 33-day Pope) and The CIA, Opus Dei and the 1978 Murders. Why two books in one book? Unless one understands the mystery of his life - something the Vatican prefers to keep secret - The Secret Life of John Paul - one will never understand the mystery of his unwitnessed death. This book is in its fourth edition. In that time, I have changed little of what I have said about this good man's life other than to expand my account in this new edition to include stories of his childhood and his young life as a seminarian and as a priest. Yet, the mystery of his death and the deaths of those around him has involved an investigative process that has taken me to Italy and elsewhere in the world many times and spanned many years. I knew much more five years ago, than I knew five years before that, and I knew much more two years ago, than I knew five years before that, and I know much more today, than I did then. Here for the first time is the proof. How John Paul, and those around him, fell victim to twentieth century capitalism as it was jointly embraced by the Vatican and the United States. BEWARE OF THE USED BOOK MARKET: 2003, 2005 and 2006 editions do not include the complete biography or the solution to the murders. Only this 404 page 2008 edition includes both compete books.

#5 in the Milan Jacovich mystery series . . . Every Clevelander understands the lake effect, a weather condition that brings plenty of snow, especially in November when election time rolls around. Milan Jacovich (it’s pronounced MY-lan YOCK-ovich), the genial Cleveland private eye, has never been a political animal. But he owes a favor to mobster Victor Gaimari, and Milan always pays his debts. So he agrees to play watchdog over a mayoral election in suburban Lake Erie Shores in which dowdy housewife Barbara Corns is challenging incumbent Gayton True. Everything seems calm on the surface—until True’s wife, Princess, is run down in the street just outside downtown Cleveland’s Tower City. It becomes obvious that there is more at stake than the mayor’s chair in a quiet suburban city hall. And when he discovers that the True campaign has employed his old nemesis, disgraced ex-cop Al Drago, who carries a grudge a mile wide, Milan knows he’s in for a lot rougher time of it than simply poll-watching.

Milan Jacovich investigates after a leading cardiologist is killed, and a classmate is suspected, at St. Claire High School's fortieth reunion.

From the tragic Mary Bell and Jamie Bulger murder cases to events world-wide, this book provides an analysis of what is a global, not just a 1st phenomenon. It includes a chapter which reviews the position in Canada.