A Known Evil – Aidan Conway

Going into this I thought that it was going to be the usual crime book with the serial killer however it turned out to be something completely different. This does follow a serial killer loose in Rome however it also follows all the political scandal and corruption which is going on in Rome as well as some immigration issues and not really knowing who you could trust. It was an interesting read, but it was definitely not what I was expecting, and I think that this partly was why I struggled to get through this.
It’s clear that this was a well researched book which was good to see; from looking at the Author, Aidan Conway, it says that he moved to Italy in 2001 from Birmingham. It was great to see so much detail not just about Rome but the other parts of Italy that are visited in this book and it did help build the setting properly.
In this book we follow Michael Rossi and his partner Carrara as they work together to find a serial killer who appears to be killing women. If only it were as straight forward as that though as they also have to navigate the current election which is going on and also wade through the political and police corruption which is rife in Rome. This leaves them questioning who they can trust and how much of what they get told or figure out is actually the truth. I did enjoy the
This story is told from multiple POV’s; we mainly get Rossi’s as he is the lead detective on the case but we also get to see some from a journalist Ianelli’s perspective, an immigrant into Rome and a few others which if I’m being 100% honest I can’t remember. I found that one of the problems I had with this book was that there was just simply too much going on at once. I lost track of names and who was supposed to be who if I’m honest, I could rely on Rossi obviously being the main detective and Carrara being his partner, but others just started to blur into a sea of names and I found it confusing and a lot to take in. The politics behind it all was confusing as well and I struggled at first to get into the whole election and understand who was being corrupted and where the corruption was happening.
I wouldn’t exactly call this a crime thriller as it does deal with a lot more than just the crime and trying to find the serial killer and not just as secondary plot points, the politics plays a very large part in this book and is definitely something to take into account. I did find it took me a lot longer to read that the usual book, but I think this is also down to the writing and introduction of a lot of plot and setting into the book which didn’t need to happen.
This is definitely something different and will be down to personal taste. I haven’t read anything that is remotely like this that I could compare it against to help with the recommendation. I did give this a 3-star rating which isn’t bad, I just didn’t find it great and I won’t be continuing with the rest of the Michael Rossi Series.