‘At last a detective who’s not haunted by personal demons or soaked in booze, a man who may not be entirely honest – indeed, you could call him corrupt as well as adulterous – but who glories in his job of solving crimes. He’s a coarse, violent and engaging policeman who would not be out of place in a James Ellroy masterpiece. The tale is deftly told with sharp, cynical dialogue. Let’s hear more of Schiavone.’ Daily Mail

‘Antonio Manzini has created an Italian detective to rival Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano with deputy chief Rocco Schiavone’ GQ

‘An arresting murder mystery’ Monocle

‘The ranks of impressive Euro Noir novelists is swelled by the gritty Antonio Manzini, whose Black Run may sport epigraphs from Schilller and Mayakovsky, but underlines its genre-credentials with a superstructure of diamond-hard crime writing … this is lacerating stuff’ Barry Forshaw, Financial Times

‘Forget Montalbano. Commisario Rocco Schivone is grievous, coarse, violent … Wonderful, heartbreaking’ L’Uomo Vogue
‘A writing style that captivates’ La Gioia

‘Corrupt and ingenious, Rocco Schiavone echoes Dudley Smith from L.A. Confidential … Cinematic and literary’ La Stampa

‘Rocco Schivone is as bad a cop as Lt. Kojak. Dishonest, potentially violent, intolerant of the rules, but he also has a talent for the job he does … an unusual character … Noir with a touch of dark irony’ Repubblica

‘Surly, moody, individualistic, unconventional, corrupt, abusive, with a dark past, Rocco Schiavone seems to come from the dark metropolis of a novel by James Ellroy’ L’Indice

‘Manzini devotes more space to his characters than to events; and the detective story is a pretext for talking brilliantly about the Italian society.’ Andrea Camilleri