The Measure of Time

1.The latest in the highly successful Guido Guerrieri series. Shortlisted for the 2020 STREGA prize, Italy's most prestigious literary award. Published last November, it has already sold over 350,000 copies in Italy alone. 2.Top of the Italian bestseller lists for three months. Carofiglio has sold over five million copies of his novels in Italy. The English language editions have exceeded 70,000 copies sold and Carofiglio is Bitter Lemon's best selling author. 3.The veracity of Carofiglio's work is rooted in his past as an anti-Mafia prosecutor in southern Italy. He has prosecuted cases of corruption, organized crime and human trafficking. From John Mortimer to Scott Turow, quite a few courtroom stars have also shone in crime fiction. Hardly any can have worked closer to the cutting-edge of organised thuggery than Carofiglio who used to serve as an anti-gang prosecutor in Bari, where the books are set. In that part of Italy, on the Adriatic coast, the mafia goes by the charming name of the Union of the Holy Crown. 4.Carofiglio seasons his plot with enough philosophical spice to satisfy readers who want more from crime than the usual legal thriller rollercoaster. He neatly switches between twist-packed plot-development, well-salted scenic (or culinary) interludes and clear-headed reflections on his past and present love life. 5. Guerrieri is more complex a character than Camilleri's Montalbano. He has a tendency to plunge into bouts of introspection about relationships, the meaning of law and justice, guilt and innocence, at just those moments when the Sicilian sleuth would start to think about his dinner. 6. The other titles in the series are Involuntary Witness (Rhegium Lulii Prize), A Walk in the Dark (Roman Librarians Prize), Reasonable Doubts (Tropea Prize) , Temporary Perfections (Selezione Campiello Prize) and A Fine Line. The first two were made into films broadcast on Italian television.7. Reviews of previous work: A Fine Line is a terrific novel, a legal thriller that is also full of complex meditations on the life of the lawyer and the difficult compromises inherent in any system of criminal justice. A book that is intensely rewarding at many levels. Scott Turow Involuntary Witness raises the standards for mystery fiction. Carofiglio's deft touch has given us a story that is both literary and gritty...His insights into human nature-good and bad-are breathtaking. Jeffery Deaver The author occupies a niche similar to Erle Stanley Gardner and John Grisham. The genre is flourishing and Carofiglio has endowed his hero with discriminating taste for good food, but none of their relish for brutality. Violence is kept at arm's length. Times Literary Supplement