The Memory Key (48 page)

I explain this and the room-method in more detail on my website, which I urge you to visit.

A Note on the Author

Conor Fitzgerald has lived in Ireland, the UK, the United States, and Italy. He has worked as an arts editor, produced a current affairs journal for foreign embassies and founded a successful translation company. He is married with two children and lives in Rome. He is the author of
The Dogs of Rome
,
The Fatal Touch
and
The Namesake
.
The Memory Key
is his fourth book.

By the same author

The Dogs of Rome

The Fatal Touch

The Namesake

Also available by Conor Fitzgerald

The Namesake

When it comes to murder it’s all in a name.

When Magistrate Matteo Arconti’s namesake, an insurance man from Milan, is found dead outside the court buildings in Piazzale Clodio, it’s a coded warning to the authorities – a clear message of defiance and intimidation.

Commissioner Alec Blume, all too familiar with Rome’s criminal underclass, knows little of the Calabrian mafia currently under investigation by the magistrate. Handing control of the investigation to now live-in and not-so-secret partner Caterina Mattiola, Blume takes a back seat. But while Caterina questions the Milanese widow, Blume has an underhand idea of his own to lure the arrogant mafioso out of his hiding place...

‘Conor Fitzgerald is a class act. A real find’ William Boyd

‘Alec Blume is an inspired creation’
Guardian

The Namesake

The Fatal Touch

In the early hours of a Saturday morning, a body is discovered in Piazza de’ Renzi. If it was just a simple fall that killed him, why is a senior Carabiniere officer so interested?

Commissioner Alec Blume is immediately curious and the discovery of the dead man’s notebooks reveals that there is a great deal more at stake than the unfortunate death of a down-and-out... What secrets did he know that might have made him a target? What is the significance of the Galleria Orpiment? And why are the authorities so intent on blocking Blume’s investigations?

‘Set in Rome in the murky world of art forgery, it’s beautifully written and has a deliciously laconic sense of humour’

Irish Times

The Fatal Touch

The Dogs of Rome

Rome. A city where rules are compromised and compromise rules.

It’s one of the hottest days of the year. Chief Inspector Blume is enjoying a rare solitary lunch in a tranquil corner of Trastevere when an unwelcome phone call intrudes with news of a brutal killing a few streets away.

Arturo Clemente is no ordinary victim. His widow is an elected member of the Senate, and Blume arrives at the scene to find enquiries well underway, the case itself apparently clear-cut, a prime suspect quickly identified. Blume must fight to regain control of the investigation, but well-acquainted with the city’s underworld, he knows from bitter experience that in Rome even a murder enquiry must bow to the rules of politics …

‘Fills the gap left by Michael Dibdin’
Sunday Times

The Dogs of Rome

Copyright © 2013 by Conor Fitzgerald

All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make

available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without

limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, or

otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any

unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil

claims for damages. For information, write to Bloomsbury USA, 1385 Broadway, New York,

New York, 10018.

Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York

library of congress cataloging-in-publication

data has been applied for.

eISBN: 978-1-62040-112-5

First U.S. Edition 2013

This electronic edition published in August 2013

www.bloomsbury.com