Book log 2010 #26: The Dogs of Rome by Conor Fitzgerald

Very engaging debut novel featuring Alec Blume, an expatriate American working as an Italian police inspector who gets called in to solve the killing of an anti-dog fighting activist whose wife is a prominent politician and whose girlfriend is the daughter of a high-ranking mafioso.

The book does a nice job of displaying the nuance necessary to actually bring someone to justice, as Blume has to balance the political influence, institutional corruption and personal agendas that come out most strongly in a high profile case. Throw in issues related to a new love interest (who may have her own agenda) and potential links back to the killings of Blume's own parents, and you have the makings of an enjoyably complex mystery.

The one annoyance I had is that the cover touts this as "An Alec Blume Mystery," which made me think this was a later entry in a series rather than the first book. Not a huge thing, obviously.