Leo Giorda: rock spirit and dark humor

Find all the latest crime fiction news and books that have caught Libé's eye on this page . And subscribe to the Libé Polar newsletter by clicking here.

There's nothing like a detective novel to discover the secret alleys of a city, the restless nights reserved for locals, the neighborhoods overlooked by tourists. Michael Connelly and Los Angeles, Arnaldur Indridason and Reykjavik, Ian Rankin and Edinburgh, Donna Leon and Venice... they're all familiar, but here's a new kid named Leo Giordia. Born in 1994 and raised in Rome, he sets his first novel in the Italian capital, near the main artery of the Appia Nuova, where a gypsy, rummaging through the trash, comes across the decapitated body of a kid no one knows. The vice-quaestor, Giacomo Chiesa, a stiff-necked man, has a strong idea about the culprit. He has a sixth sense, he claims, full of pride and certainty. But his suspect, Claudio Gatto, deserves a little more circumspection. Very quickly, Gatto senses the trap and turns to a very special detective, Adriano Scala, alias Woodstock. The private investigator has long hair tied back in a ponytail, baggy pants, a jacket of the worst kind, and a taste for shaken Vodka Martini. But above all, the drug he regularly takes "activates special areas of his brain... he notices details that escape others." Woodstock and Gatto will make a deal and unearth the most sordid of truths.

Leo Giorda mischievously uses the codes of the detective novel, doesn't really twist them, but seduces the reader until the last page, which is frankly unexpected. Ultimately, this "guardian angel" is not just a summer novel, but a fiction full of finesse, rock spirit, and dark humor. Woodstock could become a recurring hero who would take a step back and change us from the traditional hard-boiled heroes who roam the cities of crime.