This baroque thriller, set in a Milan where mist seems to continually pour from the ground, opens with two apparently unconnected events: the discovery of a murdered child, buried under a war memorial, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962; and, almost four decades later, the shooting of a man in the street on the eve of an international political conference. Chapters shift between the two detectives pursuing the investigations. The tortuous plot -- involving sadomasochistic clubs, fringe sects, and assassins -- hinges on the historical figure of Enrico Mattei, an Italian industrialist who died in a plane crash in 1962 under suspicious circumstances. The author, a poet and journalist, writes with jittery, propulsive energy, and he can stop the reader cold with a single image, as when he describes, at the crash site of Mattei's plane, the unbroken, blood-stained trees.
In the Name of Ishmael
Narrated by Grover Gardner
Giuseppe GennaUnabridged — 13 hours, 52 minutes
In the Name of Ishmael
Narrated by Grover Gardner
Giuseppe GennaUnabridged — 13 hours, 52 minutes
Overview
Politics, terror, and spellbinding literary gamesmanship are at the heart of this daring fiction debut.
Set in fogbound, wintry Milan, In the Name of Ishmael is the story of a secret cult of assassins and the two detectives who set out to reveal the true identity of Ishmael, the group's heavily protected and enigmatic leader.
Expertly weaving a story from apparently unmatched threads in two separate time periods-mysterious murders, a series of seemingly unconnected assassinations, the accident that killed Princess Diana, a bizarre sadomasochistic secret society, and the death of an Italian press magnate-Genna crafts a chilling and utterly compelling tale of political conspiracy and serial murder.
Editorial Reviews
A terrorist gang headed by the mysterious Ishmael of the title is the target of two police investigations, one in 1962 and the other in 2001, in this intricate novel of suspense and intrigue set in Milan. As Genna spins his linked stories of murder and organized crime, he weaves a web of mind games, trickery and looming threat. In 1962, the body of a 10-month-old baby boy is found on a rugby field, a "homicide with a sexual component." Inspector David Montorsi, charged with the investigation, is particularly troubled by the case because his wife, Maura, is pregnant with their first child. As he draws closer to the ring of terrorists who seem the likely perpetrators, he and his wife are entangled in their deadly schemes. In 2001, a simple murder leads Inspector Guido Lopez to an underworld of sadomasochism associated with the still-unidentified Ishmael. Meanwhile, the international participants in an economic conference-including Henry Kissinger, who is revealed to play a sinister role in Genna's tale-converge on Milan. The double plot is clever, but often unnecessarily tangled and burdened with lengthy philosophical musings. By the time the two investigations finally converge and the criminal, political and spiritual aims of Ishmael are revealed, many readers will feel stifled by the dense web of conspiracy and counter-conspiracy. 5-city author tour. (July) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Although a best seller in Italy, this thriller lacks everything that makes reading enjoyable. It follows two Milan detectives from different eras: Inspector David Montorsi, who is investigating a child's death in October 1962, just after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Inspector Guido Lopez, who is assigned to a protection unit for an upcoming conference in March 2001. During their prospective assignments, both men uncover evidence of a secret cult of assassins led by the enigmatic Ishmael, whose real identity is just one aspect of this novel that makes it less than compelling. In addition, the main characters are repugnant and uninteresting, the novel throws in famous people for no apparent reason, and a haphazard translation from Italian makes the book difficult to read. Avoid this book at all costs.-Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Two police investigations—one in 1962, the other in 2001—converge on a sect that may front a political organization threatening Italy and the rest of Europe. A thriller with the name "Ishmael" in its title gives one pause, as, so it happens, does its plot, which centers on a plan to assassinate Henry Kissinger. Kissinger is no de Gaulle, and this Italian author’s US debut is, alas, no The Day of the Jackal or Moby Dick. Genna crosscuts between two storylines, both played out in a dispiriting Milan. The first, set in 1962, follows Inspector David Montorsi as he searches for the murderer of a four-year-old whose mangled body was left at the site of a memorial for WWII partisans. Montorsi soon suspects that his department wants to cover up the incident: his office is searched, then his superiors take him off the case. Working on his own, he teams up with a helpful reporter, who then turns up murdered. Worst of all, Montorsi’s pregnant, adulterous wife is also taken out in one of many scenes that some will find repellent for their psychological, sexual, and physical violence. The second story concerns Inspector Guido Lopez, who, in 2001, tries to head off an assassination of Kissinger. Lopez’s superiors try but fail to keep him away from the case. Numbing his feelings with illicit drugs, Lopez begins to close in on a sect that dins "Ishmael is great" several times too many. Eventually, the two investigations and two inspectors meet up and uncover a plot that’s enough to make a resolute paranoid scoff. Genna, perhaps under Hemingway’s spell, writes terse descriptions of physical actions, which in this case only adds to the general monotony. Like jets in a holding pattern, theplotlines drone on and on.
The murder of a baby and, 40 years later, an unknown scarred adult prove to be as puzzling to the police as they are to the listener. Both occur in Milan, and the novel bounces from one to the other, usually focusing on the increasingly perplexed detectives trying to solve them. The crimes are the work of Ishmael, but what--or who--is Ishmael? The time shifts occur at climactic moments, a technique that is frustrating at times yet keeps the listener engrossed. Helping, too, is a flawless reading by Grover Gardner, whose pace, nuance, and skill with Italian--and later on with French, German, and Belgian--bespeak an almost native fluency. Evil abounds in this work, including some among the presumed good guys, but then evil may be Ishmael--or vice versa--and Gardner captures everyone’s uncertainty. T.H. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169907032 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 06/25/2005 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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