I have many people to thank, starting with those who were willing to listen to my doubts and correct my mistakes: Deputy Chief Magistrate Samuele De Lucia for his friendship; Sandro Raimondi, the Brescia assistant prosecutor, who introduced me to the justice machine; Pietro Alibani, who enlightened me about firearms; Alfio Caruso for his knowledge of organised crime. Any mistakes are mine alone. Thank you to my friends over at Rizzoli: Massimo, Sabrina, Michele and Stefano, who took care of the editing, and were excited to work with me and Annibale Canessa; I hope we haven’t let them down. Thanks to Rosaria, as always, for her support. I would never have reached the end, however, had it not been for Emanuela, Cecilia, Rachele, and Giovanni, who filled the gaps with their presence. Thank you to all of you for coming this far. As Annibale would say, this was something that had to be done, and I did it.
p.s.: The novel is dedicated to Gérard de Villiers, an extraordinary, prolific and knowledgeable French writer and the first to bewitch me with his noir books when I was a teenager. I followed at least a few of his rules in my book.