A nine-year-old boy is found murdered at the bottom of a well near a beach resort in southern Italy. In what looks like a hopeless case for Guido Guerrieri, counsel for the defence, a Senegalese peddler is accused of the crime. More than a perfectly paced legal thriller, this relentless suspense novel transcends the genre. A powerful attack on racism, and a fascinating insight into the Italian judicial process, it is also an affectionate portrait of a deeply humane hero. Gianrico Carofiglio is an anti-Mafia judge in Italy. This is his first novel, a bestseller in Italy and now the subject of a television series. It has won a number of prizes, including the Marisa Rusconi award.

Praise for Involuntary Witness : “Raises the standard for crime fiction. Carofiglio’s 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 stunner. The veracity of the setting and the humanity of the lawyer make the novel a courtroom drama of rare quality.”— The Times “Compelling novel written by a prosecutor, the scourge of local criminals who likes to write books that make his readers cry. Reveals both a flawed legal system and debunks the myth of the macho Italian man.”— Observer “Carofiglio writes crisp, ironical novels that are as much love stories and philosophi-cal treatises as they are legal thrillers.”— The New Yorker When Martina accuses her ex-boyfriend—the son of a powerful local judge—of assault and battery, no witnesses can be persuaded to testify on her behalf, and one lawyer after another refuses to represent her. Guido Guerrieri knows the case could bring his legal career to a messy end, but he cannot resist the appeal of a hopeless cause. Nor can he deny an attraction to Sister Claudia, the young woman in charge of the shelter where Martina is living, who shares his love of martial arts and his virulent hatred of injustice.

“Carofiglio writes crisp, ironical novels that are as much love stories and philosophical treatises as they are legal thrillers.”—The New Yorker “Guerrieri could have just gotten off an Alitalia flight from the land of Grisham or the Los Angeles of Michael Connelly’s The Lincoln Lawyer. Sharp writing will keep readers turning the pages.”—Publishers Weekly Praise for the Guerrieri series: “Involuntary Witness is a stunner.”—The Times “Every character in Carofiglio’s fiction has a story to tell and they are always worth hearing. As the author himself is an anti-mafia prosecutor, this powerfully affecting series benefits from veracity as well as tight writing.”—Daily Mail “Raises the standard for crime fiction. Carofiglio's deft touch has given us a story that is both literary and gritty—it speeds along like the best legal thrillers.”—Jeffery Deaver Lawyer Guerrieri is asked to handle the appeal of Fabio Paolicelli, sentenced to sixteen years for smuggling drugs into Italy. Everything seems stacked against the accused, not least because he initially confessed to the crime. His past as a neo-fascist thug also adds credence to the case against him. Only the intervention of Paolicelli’s beautiful half-Japanese wife finally overcomes Guerrieri’s reluctance. Matters get more complicated when Guerrieri ends up in bed with her. Gianrico Carofiglio, born in 1961, is a judge and anti-Mafia prosecutor in the southern Italian city of Bari. Bitter Lemon Press introduced him to English-speaking readers with his best-selling debut novel, Involuntary Witness.

The electrifying best-selling crime thriller from Italy, available for the first time in English. An instant sensation and number-one best seller since its publication, Temporary Perfections is the fourth crime novel by former Italian prosecutor Gianrico Carofiglio to feature Guido Guerrieri. A lawyer practicing in Bari, in southwest Italy, Guido Guerrieri is hired by an old colleague to work a missing-persons case that the police have failed to solve. Manuela Ferraro disappeared six months ago after spending a September weekend at a beach resort; as Guerrieri digs deep into her life and activities, he stumbles into a sinister drug ring and the real truth about why Ferraro vanished. Simultaneously thoughtful and suspenseful, this is crime fiction at its best.

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 discovers that the judge has links to the mafia. Larocca is blind to the immorality of his actions but Annapaola makes sure that justice is done, perhaps not in the most orthodox way. 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."

The latest in the Guido Guerrieri series. The setting is Bari in Southern Italy. Against his own instincts, defence attorney Guerrieri takes on an appeal against what looks like an unassailable murder conviction. The alleged perpetrator is the son of a former lover. A taught legal thriller and a meditation about the ravages of time.

Il ritorno di Guido Guerrieri in un romanzo poderoso e commovente. «Non so dire se avessi deciso già quella mattina, al momento di andare in tribunale, che sarei rimasto in aula ad aspettare la sentenza. Forse sí o forse no. Mi sedetti sulla sedia del pubblico ministero, su quella di un giudice popolare, su quella del presidente, poi entrai nella gabbia degli imputati. Per vedere il mondo attraverso le sbarre». Una donna ha ucciso a colpi di pistola l'ex compagno della sorella. Legittima difesa o omicidio premeditato? La Corte è riunita in Camera di Consiglio. In attesa della sentenza l'avvocato Guerrieri ripercorre le dolorose vicende personali che lo hanno investito nell'ultimo anno. E si interroga sul tempo trascorso, sul senso della sua professione, sull'idea stessa di giustizia. Un'avventura processuale enigmatica, dal ritmo impareggiabile, che si intreccia a un'affilata meditazione sulla perdita e sul rimpianto, sulle inattese sincronie della vita e sulla ricerca della felicità.