This true crime book is also a meditation on the city of Rome itself. The crime is the inexplicable and brutal murder of a young man at the hands of two other young men during a days long drug and alcohol binge. The author brings to life the horror of the crime, its impact on the people related to both the victim and the perpetrators, and the psychology of all three men that led to this tragic crime.

The style of this book is a bit different than most US true crime books, it seems deeper and more philosophical. The closest I can compare it to would be somewhere between In Cold Blood and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

I was actually traveling in Rome when I won this book for review but couldn’t access it due to digital rights. That was unfortunate as the author spoke of many places I was near as I discovered during my googling as I read the book.