The American

The second Leone Scarmacio thriller.

As autumn sets in, the queues outside the soup kitchens of Rome are lengthening, and the people are taking to the piazzas, increasingly frustrated by the deepening economic crisis.

Detective Leone Scamarcio is called to an apparent suicide on the Ponte Sant Angelo, a stone's throw from Vatican City. A man is hanging from the bridge, his expensive suit suggesting yet another businessman fallen on hard times. But Scamarcio is immediately troubled by similarities with the 1982 murder of Roberto Calvi, dubbed 'God's Banker' because of his work for the Vatican Bank.

Scamarcio's instincts are soon proved correct when a cardinal with links to the bank is killed. And when US Intelligence warn Scamarcio to drop his investigation, he knows that the stakes are far higher than he first realised. Ignoring their threats, Scarmarcio pushes on, but his progress is being monitored by some of the world's most powerful men, who will stop at nothing to make sure their dirty work stays under cover.

In breathtaking developments that link 9/11, America's dirty wars, Vatican corruption, the Mafia, and Italy's violence against its own people, Scarmacio has to deal with responsibilities far above his pay grade.