Blog Tour | Book Review: Kill the Angel by Sandrone Dazieri (Torre and Caselli #2) #RandomThingsTours

I’m delighted to be kicking of the Kill the Angel blog tour, and sharing my review of this title with you today. Kill the Angel follows Kill the Father in Dazieri’s Torre and Caselli series.

The second novel from the acclaimed author of Kill the Father, a Richard and Judy 2017 Bookclub pick and Sunday Times bestseller, this thriller is multi-layered, complex, full of twists and turns and satisfyingly dark –  one of those novels you just have to read late into the night.

A high-speed train from Milan draws into the station in Rome, and a horrific discovery in one carriage rocks the city. Preliminary investigations are put in the hands of Deputy Police Commissioner Colomba Caselli.

The Police receive a message claiming responsibility for the act and announcing more murders to come, and they duly turn their attention to a small terrorist group of Islamic extremists. But investigator Dante Torre does not believe this angle. For him, this feels like a smokescreen concealing the actions of a killer who has a far more terrible motivation.

The trail lead to Berlin and Venice, where the waters of the Venetian Lagoon will turn blood red…

After reading the first page, I was hooked, and it remained that way until the very last page. I always recommend reading series in order to maximise enjoyment; Kill the Angel makes several references to the first book, and I would go as far as to say, there is a continuing storyline there because the after-effects of the events in the first book are rippling through this one.

One of the great things about reading series, is the familiarity you already have with the characters. Granted, there didn’t seem to be a huge amount of character development in this one, but Colomba and Dante are such interesting characters, it didn’t hinder my reading experience in any way; but it’s my reviewer duty to inform you that the character development is stagnant in this one. In the first book, I struggled to pick a favourite, but here, Dante was my favourite of the two – he’s such as interesting character, he has a brilliant mind but lives in a constant drug-induced state to numb the pain of his past. Colomba isn’t without her trauma either, so if you enjoy reading about characters who may have recovered physically, but emotionally are still a wreck, this novel would be an excellent choice.

However, the most interesting character for me was one on the “side of evil” – this character was absolutely fascinating. The aftermath that ailed this particular character was something I haven’t come across before and I really enjoyed its originality here. I know I’m being extremely vague but that’s because I don’t want to give anything away.

Kill the Angel is most certainly a high-octane thriller. I love when an author has the power to seamlessly deceive the reader, not only does it make the plot unpredictable, but it shows its cleverness. This plot wasn’t as complex as it was in the first book, but it was still multi-layered and thrilling. The plot gets a bit violent at times, and the events that occur sometimes pushed the boundaries on believability, but that’s a sacrifice happily made for the entertainment factor it delivered.

Can we talk about endings? Because this one was brilliant and has me super excited for book three. Dazieri writes at a constantly high level, disturbing plots and complex characters, and a massive thank you to Antony Shugaar for providing the translation from the Italian. I highly recommend this novel, and series, to fans of crime thrillers that are dark in theme and psychologically intense.

This book is available to buy from: Amazon UK / Book Depository

*My thanks to Simon & Schuster UK & Anne Cater (Random Things Tours) for providing me a copy of this book and inviting me to participate in the blog tour*

Sandrone Dazieri was born in Cremona (Italy) in 1964. He graduated at San Pellegrino Terme hotel-management school and worked as a cook for years, all around Italy. After having moved to Milan he started working in a number of jobs, from seller to porter, and played a very active role in the italian anti nuclear movement.

In 1992 he got closer to publishing working as freelance journalist ad expert of underground culture and cyberpunk fiction. In 1999 he achieved his first popular success with the thriller “Attenti al gorilla” (Watch Out For The Gorilla), the first in a best-seller series, where the main character is a sort of doppelgènger of Dazieri himself, living the nightlife in Milan with all the ensuing troubles. Dazieri’s books are renowned for the rocambolesque adventures in which Sandrone (the main character has the author’s name too) is continuously involved, in an irrefrenable but never fatalistic destiny. It is in fact Sandrone’s personality that always drives him to assist the weak and derelict, those who have lost all hope for help but for the Gorilla’s saving hand. Among a thousand contradictions, he’ll confront all sorts of dangers, in the best tradition of hardboiled thrillers, and aided by his alter ego called Socio (the rational side of Sandrone, in a split-personality condition), our hero will happily finalise and conclude many chilling and hair-raising situations.

Dazieri wrote many other noir novels, kids novels, comics and short stories. He is also a scriptwriter for cinema and tv. His most successful serie is “Squadra Antimafia” (Antimafia Squad) now optioned by ABC. With Italian film director Gabriele Salvatores and producer Maurizio Totti, Dazieri founded in 2004 the publishing house Colorado Noir. From 2000 to 2004 he was also the chief editor of the crime series Gialli Mondadori (Mondadori Thrillers) and the catalogue for young readers Libri per Ragazzi Mondadori (Mondadori Books for Youth). He is currently a literary consultant to the Mondadori Publishing House. He is vegetarian and testimonial for many nonprofit organization.

Twitter @sandronedazieri

***

FOLLOW THE KILL THE ANGEL BLOG TOUR