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Book Summary and Reviews of Broken Truths by Alessandro Robecchi

Broken Truths by Alessandro Robecchi

Broken Truths

A Novel

by Alessandro Robecchi

  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Published:
  • May 2026, 288 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A mysterious murder in present-day Milan intertwines with a cold case from the 1940s in this thrilling novel about film, freedom, censorship, and the persistent threat of fascism.

An acclaimed director, Manlio Parrini, decides to return behind the camera. Having abandoned cinema at the height of his success because he found the industry to be "a place without truth," he now, in his 70s, has a special story in mind: a film about Augusto De Angelis, a pioneer of Italian crime fiction in the 1930s. The violent death of De Angelis remains, for Parrini, an unsolved case marked by the stench of injustice and blind fascist censorship, a story that needs to be told now more than ever.

Yet just as Parrini finds a producer for his project and begins writing the screenplay with his friend and accomplice Sara De Viesti, another mystery bursts into his life: the murder of the elderly widow Bastoni, who owns the villa next door to his.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"[An] exquisite whodunit…This is a cut above most murder mysteries." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"This singular and layered tale…compellingly depicts artistic collaboration along with the puzzle of a police procedural…Fans of Georges Simenon's Maigret or Anthony Horowitz's Hawthorne and Horowitz will find much to enjoy in this literary house of mirrors." —Library Journal (starred review)

"A riveting mystery packed with political and historical intrigue. Italy's past and present are woven together in thrilling detail." —Jo Piazza, author of The Sicilian Inheritance and Everyone Is Lying to You

This information about Broken Truths was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Alessandro Robecchi

Alessandro Robecchi is a former columnist for Il Manifesto and currently writes for Il Fatto Quotidiano and Tuttolibri of La Stampa. Robecchi is one of Italy's most beloved crime authors, with his ten novels in the Carlo Monterossi series having sold more than 600,000 copies.

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