Carlo Lucarelli also mines recent historical fiction with the middle volume of a trilogy of post-World War II novels featuring Commissario Di Luca. Still haunted by Italy's war and the aftermath of Mussolini's fascist regime, he is on the run from those seeking revenge on any and every law enforcement member for their culpability in the country's crimes. Temporarily ensconced in a small town under a different name, Di Luca's identity is exposed - but kept secret once more in exchange for helping to investigate a particularly gruesome multiple murder. By setting this book in 1946, and the whole trilogy immediately after the war, Lucarelli evokes the raw emotion and helpless anger that Italians felt in the wake of considerable carnage and asks hard questions about culpability and guilt. Like many of his Italian crime-writing brethren, Lucarelli prefers brevity over bloat, making an already engrossing read all the more emotionally resonant.