A Fine Line - (Guido Guerrieri) by Gianrico Carofiglio (Paperback)

About the Book

Our lawyer hero Guerrieri, a corrupt judge, and a woman biker detective, all embroiled in an Italian immorality tale.

Book Synopsis

"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

The fifth in the best-selling Guido Guerrieri series.

When Judge Larocca is accused of corruption, Guerrieri goes against his better instincts and takes the case. Helped by Annapaola Doria, a motorbike-riding bisexual private detective who keeps a baseball bat on hand for sticky situations, he investigates the alleged links to the mafia. Of course Guerrieri cannot stop himself from falling for Annapaola's exotic charms.

The novel is a suspenseful legal thriller but it is also much more. It is the story of a judge who, to quote Dostoevsky, "lies to himself and listens to his own lies, so gets to the point where he can no longer distinguish the truth, either in himself or around himself."

Review Quotes

"A Fine Line is a terrific novel, a legal thriller that is also full of complex mediations 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

"From legal thriller into the realm of Paul Auster" -- Publishers Weekly

"Carofiglio raises the standard for crime fiction. His deft touch has given us a story that is both literary and gritty--and one that speeds along like the best legal thrillers. His insights into human nature--good and bad--are breathtaking." -- Jeffery Deaver

"A Fine Line is not simply a legal thriller, but it is also an observation on human nature and the impossible line of morality in judicial ethics. Guido is placed in a difficult position as he is ethically and legally bound to serve his client and bring him no harm, regardless of the harm that representing his client could cause to the tentative balance of the judicial system as a whole. The story is intriguing and Guido continually finds himself in sticky situations, but what I really loved was the way Carofiglio represented Guido's talents in defending his clients with surgical precision and his ability to break down a witness's testimony- highlighting the weaknesses that others miss. A Fine Line is a great legal thriller that will make you contemplate the judicial system and the fragile balance that makes it all come together to work successfully." -- San Diego Book Review

Praise for Gianrico Carofiglio:

"The author occupies a niche similar to Erle Stanley Gardner and John Grisham. Carofiglio has endowed his hero with discriminating taste for good food, but none of their relish for brutality."--The Times Literary Supplement

"As exacting and contemplative as any crime writer I can think of. Yet when the Italian defense lawyer isn't doing something, he is thinking, and what goes on in his doubt-stuffed head is always captivating."--The Washington Post

"Hard-boiled and sun-dried in equal parts. Where Philip Marlowe would be knocking back bourbon and listening to the snap of fist on jaw, Guerrieri prefers Sicilian wine and Leonard Cohen."--Financial Times

About the Author

Gianrico Carofiglio is now a full time novelist. He was previously a member of the Senate in Italy and before that, an anti-Mafia prosecutor in Bari, a port on the coast of Puglia. He has been involved with trials concerning corruption, organized crime and the traffic in human beings. He is a best-selling author of crime novels, literary fiction.This is the fifth Guerrieri novel is in this best-selling series.

Howard Curtis lives in Norwich and is a prize winning translator from Italian and French. He has translated two other Guerrieri novels for Bitter Lemon Press as well as fiction by Flaubert, Luis Sepúlveda, Giorgio Faletti, Puerto Grossi and Georges Simenon.