A kidnapped child and the burglary of a high-class apartment: two crimes that seem to have no connection at all until Inspector Lojacono, known as "The Chinaman," starts to investigate.

De Giovanni is one of the most dexterous and successful writers of crime fiction currently working in Europe. His award-winning and bestselling novels, all set in Naples, offer a brilliant vision of the criminal underworld and the police that battle it in Europa's most fabled, atmospheric, dangerous, and lustful city.

The Bastards of Pizzofalcone is a new series set in contemporary Naples that draws inspiration from Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels and features a large cast of complicated cops doing battle with ruthless criminals.

Maurizio de Giovanni
Maurizio de Giovanni lives and works in Naples. In 2005, he won a writing competition for unpublished authors with a short story set in the thirties about Commissario Ricciardi, which was then turned into the first novel of the series. His books have been successfully translated into French, Spanish and German, and are now available in English for the first time.