Author:
Paola Darò
Publisher:
Piemme
Release Date:
28-01-2025
The blue light of the patrol cars illuminates the austere face of Turin’s buildings, lighting up the night in a downtown neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. An old Savoy painter, Simone Benelli, was found dead in his home, sitting in the armchair in the living room with a severed finger. No sign of forced entry on the front door, no noise. Adele saw old Benelli every day. He lived in the building opposite and was in the habit of ending the day smoking on the balcony, just like her. He was a distinguished, elegant, sad-looking and lonely man. The case intrigued her: she contacted the family and decided to dedicate a solo exhibition to the missing painter in her small art gallery. Thus begins the excavation into the past of a mysterious man, whom not even his niece, Nadia, really knew. A stormy youth spent in London and a late life spent in Italy, a great initial success and sudden, long crises of creativity. Benelli’s life, like his art, is studded with contradictions and mysteries. But who killed him? La finestra del terzo piano embodies the most intimate character of a reserved and noble city like Turin. An unmissable debut with an enveloping writing, poised between the warmth of comedy and the pressing rhythm of a detective story, with an easygoing and unconventional protagonist: Adele Tedeschi, a gallery owner who searches in the painter’s brushstrokes for a clue that can solve a murder mystery.