L'Alligatore

In The Colombian Mule, the author brings to riveting life the story of Arías Cuevas, who sets in motion a chain of bloody events when police catch him trying to carry a shipment of La Tía's cocaine into Italy. The intended recipient of the coke appears to have been art smuggler Nazzareno Corradi. But Corradi has been set up. He hires a PI known as "the Alligator" to get him out of the mess he's in. Meanwhile, La Tía, a notoriously ruthless figure in the Colombian drug trade, is determined to move her operation to Italy, where cocaine has become all the rage among the professional classes. There's only one thing standing in her way: the Alligator. The Alligator, an ex-con-turned-investigator, and his two companions, former underworld heavy Beniamino Rossini and Max the Memory, are among Massimo Carlotto's most vivid noir creations. Together, the three men will wade deep into a criminal world of few scruples, testing their own strict and specific moral code along the way.

A woman has gone missing. Her husband, too ashamed to admit to the police that he and his wife were part of a ring of sexual adventurers that organized sadomasochistic orgies, turns instead to the Alligator. Marco Burrati enters a depraved demiworld where ferocious deviates prey upon lonely victims. But the savagery of this world is only the first surprise this investigation holds in store for the Alligator. Encountering such violence and desperation triggers memories of his own time in prison. And while the unwritten rule of ex-cons is that you must never talk about your experiences behind bars, the Alligator and his two longtime associates, Max the Memory and Beniamino Rossini, are forced to confront demons they thought long buried. In The Master of Knots, Massimo Carlotto, gives his readers a work of hardboiled noir fiction that is darker than ever before as he digs into the shadowy corners of human experience. This stunning novel sets a new high-water mark in the literary history of the Mediterranean Noir novel.

PI Marco "the Alligator" Buratti returns in a thriller. Now, Massimo Carlotto gives his American readers his most memorable character yet: ex-con turned private investigator Marco Buratti, a.k.a. the Alligator. Closing the door on a crime-ridden past, Buratti plans to spend the rest of his days in the darkness of a seedy nightclub sipping Calvados and listening to the blues. But things don't quite work out as he planned: though he may be through with his past, his past isn't through with him. When his gangster friend Beniamino Rossini's girlfriend is kidnapped, Buratti is forced to investigate a case of international drug dealing. He will be thrown headfirst into the underworld he has struggled to escape. In the world of Massimo Carlotto's fiction, new and old criminal organizations collide and innocent bystanders are as hard to find as honest cops.

PI Marco "the Alligator" Buratti returns from the celebrated Italian crime writer and author of Bandit Love. Padua, Italy. An unremarkable man, a husband and father, disappears without a trace. After a few months of searching, the police send his file to the cold cases department to be thrown in with the files of other missing persons. One woman knows the truth about his disappearance, but, being the daughter of a prominent and wealthy Swiss industrialist, she fears coming forward with what she knows: that she was his lover and that there is more to his disappearance than another bored suburban husband running out on his wife. Stricken by guilt, she finally confides in a lawyer who advises her to turn to Marco Buratti, a.k.a. the Alligator, for help. Buratti agrees to assist the woman. Initially, the case of the woman's missing lover seems like a lost cause, but a clue puts the Alligator and his trusted associates, Max the Memory and Beniamino Rossini, on the trail of the unscrupulous and brilliant criminal, Giorgio Pellegrini, protagonist of The Goodbye Kiss and At the End of a Dull Day. The deadly game of chicken in which the good guys and the bad guys are often hard to tell apart is Carlotto's specialty. But good or bad, these men are survivors in a world where the once ironclad criminal codes of conduct are disappearing and new criminal syndicates do vicious battle with old.

The writer immerses readers in a gritty noir novel featuring PI Marco "the Alligator" Buratti (Il Manifesto). This novel, by one of Italy's bestselling crime novelists, provides a unique perspective on the criminal and social dynamics that dominate contemporary Italy. One of the many robberies that plague Northeast Italy goes wrong and ends with a brutal murder. The police investigation turns up nothing. Two years later, Marco Buratti, alias "the Alligator," is asked to look into the crime and find out who was responsible. Buratti's employer is young, the youngest client he has ever had; he is only twelve years old and is the son of one of the victims. The Alligator realizes right from the start that the truth is cloaked, twisted, shocking. Together with his associates, Beniamino Rossini and Max the Memory, he finds himself mixed up in a story involving contraband gold and blood vendettas between criminal gangs.

International secret police operations, drug trafficking, prostitution, and identity theft set the stage for the eternal struggle between Good and Evil. Acclaimed as one of today's best contemporary noir writers, Massimo Carlotto reaches new heights in the most complex "Alligator" novel to date. Rich with biting humor, humanity, and psychological insight, this is an exemplary noir novel from a crime writer at the top of his game. Marco Buratti, a.k.a. the Alligator, and his partners Max the Memory and Beniamino Rossini have fallen into a trap laid by their worst enemy, Giorgio Pellegrini, a wanted man who has no intention of living as a fugitive for the rest of his life and turns state evidence, but something goes wrong. Blackmailed by a high government official, the Alligator and his partners are forced to investigate. But, they've been framed: even if they discover who's behind the crime, they'll rot in prison. To survive, some rules will have to be bent, and others broken.