“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” Those classic lines spoken by Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part III are a running theme in Heider’s terrific follow-up to her acclaimed debut, May the Wolf Die. Shaken by the traumatic events of the previous book, Nikki Serafino, a liaison between the Italian police and the U.S. military stationed in Naples, is lying low, teaching a self-defense class, when she’s rescued from a shakedown and mugging by Benedetto De Rosa. He is the right-hand man of Tito Calandra, Nikki’s childhood friend who has become a powerful figure in the city’s underworld. Not wishing to be drawn back into that world, Nikki refuses De Rosa’s request for a favor. But it’s not so easy to disconnect from the corrupt il Sistema (the System) of organized crime that is so much a part of Neapolitan life, as Nikki discovers when she agrees to help undercover cop Valerio Alfieri (who has his own issues with the Comorra) investigate a murder. The victim is a young nanny at the historic Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo, with the crime witnessed by Valerio’s mother and the daughter of the U.S. ambassador. Once again, Heider brings the beautiful and complicated city of Naples to life in all its elegant and squalid splendor while telling an exciting, dark, and violent tale with a high body count. Readers will eagerly await Nikki’s next quest for justice.—Willy Williams
