Synopses & Reviews
Winner of the Scerbanenco Prize for the best Italian crime thriller,
The Deliverance of Evil is a masterful psychological thriller about an edgy policeman's personal evolution — or devolution — as seen through the lens of a devilish case that consumed him early in his career and continues to haunt him twenty-four years later.
With excitement over Berlusconi rise to power and Italy in a state of gleeful and frenzied anticipation over the national soccer team's improbable run to the 1982 finals of the World Cup Italians are filled with hopeful feelings extending beyond the stadium. Italy itself is poised for a golden era of prosperity and positive change. The night before the big match, Elisa Sordi — an attractive eighteen year-old employed by the Vatican — vanishes. The case falls to a young, hedonistic post-Fascist officer named Michele Balistreri, who is at a party watching the match and deciding which pretty girl there will be his next sexual conquest. Headstrong and ambivalent about spending his life as a policeman, Balistreri is annoyed to be interrupted during the festivities and takes the case lightly. But when Elisa's tortured corpse surfaces in the Tiber, Balistreri doubts he will ever be able to forgive himself for his inattention. After the man he arrested for the murder is exonerated, and tantalizing links to the Vatican and top right-wing politicians ignored, the case is never solved. Despondent, Michele spirals into drinking and depression.
Twenty-four years later Italy is victorious once again in the World Cup, but the nation has changed. The balloon of optimism from the Eighties has deflated, and the now-gloomy nation suffers under the arrogant and corrupt Berlusconi government. A weak economy and chaotic immigration policies that have inflamed racist sentiments provide a stark contrast to the last time Italy tasted sweet soccer victory. Disturbingly, more lax divorce laws have spawned a trend of "revenge" violence against women who try to assert their independence.
Michele Balistreri has changed along with his country. Although he got his career back on track after the disastrous Sordi case and rose to a high position in the national police — specializing in crimes involving immigrants — he is no longer the devil-may-care libertine he was then. Now he keeps to himself, plagued by self-created health problems and bitter memories.
Suddenly Sordi's mother apparently commits suicide, and then a slew of female corpses begin to turn up all with a letter of the alphabet carved into their bodies. The apparent hate behind the murders causes Balistreri to realize that the case that has haunted for twenty-four years may be heating up again, and with a newfound sense of purpose he charges into his work: the opportunity to redeem the darkest part of his past.
The tenacious investigative journalist Linda Nardi senses a connection too. Nardi is highly resourceful, and also a feminist — perhaps an un-tattooed Lisbeth Salander with a steady day job. She is doubtful of the popularly-accepted theory that a gang of immigrant youth is responsible for the latest crimes, and her suspicions tie into her frustration over the corruption poisoning Italian law enforcement — not to mention her frustrations over Italy's pervasive violence against women and xenophobia against immigrants from the East.
Balistreri and Nardi join forces — a volatile pairing with Balistreri's past as a womanizer and Nardi's fierce independence. They soon find themselves up against policemen who think they are above Italian law, Vatican officials who consider themselves above any law, and the disturbing currents of racism and misogyny that has become pervasive in Italy over the last three decades.
Meanwhile the murders continue, and what initially seemed to be the work of a lone psychopath reveals itself to be part of something much bigger and more dangerous. Finally Balistreri realizes that the letters marking each victim are spelling out a chilling message... addressed directly to him.
Review
"Rich with fascinating political history, filled with brilliant psychological insight, and a nonstop thriller....Bravo!" New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver
Synopsis
On July 11, 1982, Elisa Sordi was beautiful. Commissario Michele Balistreri was fearless. Italy was victorious.
A killer was waiting . . .
On July 9, 2006, with Sordi's case twenty-four years cold, and Balistreri haunted by guilt and regret, Italian victory returned. And so did Sordi's killer . . .
But this time Michele Balistreri would be ready. This time he would fear no evil.
Synopsis
The Deliverance of Evil is a masterful psychological thriller about an edgy policeman’s personal evolution — or devolution — as seen through the lens of a devilish case that consumed him early in his career and continues to haunt him twenty-four years later.
In 1982, all of Italy was joyous, having just won the World Cup after a decades-long championship drought, while in Rome hard-drinking Commissario Michele Balistreri was a brash cop investigating the murder of beautiful young Elisa Sordi. Despite the Commissario’s brash style, or perhaps because of his arrogance, the murderer is never found. As the years pass, the file goes cold and Balistreri grows wiser, if perhaps a little more damaged and a little less fearless, consumed by the guilt of having left Sordi’s murder unsolved.
In 2006, Italy is once again on the brink of a World Cup victory and Balistreri is losing the battle against his personal demons when Sordi’s mother suddenly commits suicide. Emerging from a haze of antidepressants and self-pity, Balistreri is spurred to action and picks up the case again, sure that Elisa’s killer is still out there, simply awaiting his next opportunity to strike.
About the Author
Roberto Costantini was born to Italian parents in Libya, where he spent the first eighteen years of his life. He was educated as a mechanical engineer, and also earned an MBA from Stanford University. After a thirty-year career working for American companies in many different countries, he is now a manager of the LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, where he also teaches Leadership and Negotiation in the MBA program. The Deliverance of Evil is his first novel and the first in a planned trilogy, the second of which will focus on Michele Balistreri’s adolescence in Libya during the rise of Gaddafi.
Reading Group Guide
READING GROUP GUIDE THE DELIVERANCE OF EVIL sets a classic, complex whodunit murder mystery against a unique backdrop: modern-day Italy. Italy is one of the most politically volatile places in Western Europe today, with a difficult combination of corrupt government, socially ingrained racism and sexism, and a close relationship with the Vatican. Roberto Costantini uses a compelling crime narrative to illustrate the realities of Italian life today.
1. Discuss Italy’s two World Cup victories and their connections to the events and issues in THE DELIVERANCE OF EVIL.
2. Michele Balistreri says, “things change around us, but not inside us.” What is your opinion of Balistreri’s morals and character in 1982? What about in 2006? How has time changed him, and how has time failed to change him?
3. What do you learn about Italian aristocracy and its relevance today from Manfredi and his family? What aristocratic privileges do they still enjoy?
4. Does being female help or hinder Linda Nardi’s work as a journalist, both in general and in her work on the murder story she is chasing with Balistreri?
5. Does THE DELIVERANCE OF EVIL seem to be forgiving or indicting of the Catholic Church? Does Cardinal Alessandrini seem to represent the church as a whole, or does Roberto Costantini present him as an isolated case?
6. Are any of the characters in THE DELIVERANCE OF EVIL completely “good” or completely “bad?” Did you ever find yourself disliking the supposed heroes or sympathizing with the supposed villains?
7. Based on THE DELIVERANCE OF EVIL, do you think the future of race relations in Italy is bright or bleak? Why?
8. Discuss the different standards of law and justice that are at odds in this novel — for example, Italian law vs. Vatican law vs. Divine law.
9. Looking at Roberto Costantini’s depiction of Italy in 1982, where do you see the “seeds” of what transpired (socio-economically) over the next decades to create the Italy of 2006 portrayed in the novel? For example, what roles did racism and sexism, as well as turmoil within the Vatican, play?
10. What does the character Colajacono tell us about the realities of police corruption in Italy today? Do you think his fate in the novel is deserved?