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    Out of Season: A Novel
    Out of Season: A Novel
    Out of Season: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    Out of Season: A Novel

    Written by Antonio Manzini

    Narrated by Chris Andrew Ciulla

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    A clever, engaging new novel from bestselling Italian author, Antonio Manzini, following the dashing deputy police chief, Rocco Schiavone, who confronts his most riveting case ever.

    It’s the bitterly cold spring season in alpine Aosta, and a girl has been kidnapped. Chiara Berguet, daughter of the owners of a local construction firm, was targeted thanks to the sizeable debt her parents owe. But like many a best-laid plan, a blown tire causes the crime to go haywire as the kidnappers’ van skids off the road and crashes into a pair of larch trees. Both the driver and his accomplice die on impact, leaving the girl in the back, gagged and bound and unable to break herself free.

    Meanwhile Rocco Schiavone wakes to find himself in Anna’s apartment. She’s the best friend of his girlfriend Nora, and memories of the night before, a heated evening with Anna, return to him. As he sneaks out, he sees the first few snowstorm clouds of the spring season move across the sky, an ominous reference that something is off.

    If trouble at home and a case of kidnapping weren’t enough, Rocco will eventually have to contend with Enzo Baiocchi. Rocco was the one who sent Enzo to prison, and in the process killed Enzo’s brother. Having just escaped from prison, Enzo is heading north with a newly purchased revolver and, clearly, revenge on his mind. And when an unfortunate incident of mistaken identity makes Enzo’s act of revenge even more fiendish, it also presents a gruesome scene for Rocco to discover on his return home.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 2, 2018
    ISBN9780062876447
    Author

    Antonio Manzini

    Antonio Manzini is an actor, screenwriter, director, and the author of two murder mysteries featuring Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone, Black Run is the first of these novels to be translated into English. He lives in Italy.

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    Reviews for Out of Season

    3.5/5

    52 ratings10 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 4/5
      Out of Season was a much better "who dun it" then I thought....Rocco is such an irreverent Deputy Chief...the humor was expertly mixed with the seriousness of the story line..
    • 3/5
      Kidnapping, mob language, organized crime and a Deputy Police Chief who has no problems crossing the line when it comes to finding a solution to the crime and arresting the perp. This mystery novel started slowly for me and I never did really connect with the storyline or Chief Rocco, the unorthodox and handsome Chief had some personal habits which I found rather unbelievable for a law enforcer. Some readers may enjoy the police procedure information or the animal conversations, I think I may be more of a traditional mystery reader. I give this book a 3-star rating. Thank you to the publisher and LibraryThing for my pre-publication copy.
    • 4/5
      This is my first book by Antonio Manzini, and I enjoyed the story. Not reading the first books in the series didn't seem to matter much; this worked well as a stand-alone for me. Interesting story and I found the lead character believable and I understood his motivation. I will say, there is a major error in the description on the back cover, and I hope it gets corrected before the book goes to print. I had to re-read sections several times, because they just didn't make sense based on the blurb. I finally just accepted that the back cover was wrong.
    • 5/5
      I received this book as an Early Reviewer.Deputy Chief Rocco Schiavone is damaged goods. He has been transferred from Rome, after doing "outstanding work" with the state police in Rome. He now finds himself in alpine Aosta, 371 miles north of his beloved Rome, a virtual backwater in comparison to what he has experienced in his law enforcement career. He's being punished for some transgression, which is rather clouded, but, to his credit, he does not allow himself to be defeated. He maintains his determination, his focus and his persistence when the investigation of a kidnapping becomes his responsibility. Schiavone is often foul-tempered and profane, which may be explained by some of the incompetent officers under his supervision and the difficult characters he is associated with in Aosta's law enforcement, but it seems to work for him and he gets the job done. Manzini's look into Aosta is very entertaining, with lots of quirky characters encountered along the way. It should be noted that Antony Shugaar has done a masterful job of translating the original Italian to English. Hat's off to you, Dottor! "Out of Season" is a light-hearted police procedural, nicely done by Antonio Manzini. It is well worth the time to peer into the life of Commissario Rocco Schiavone!
    • 4/5
      This second book in the Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone mystery series is a gritty police procedural with a peek into the dark world of money laundering and organized crime. The reader is not spared the ugliness of this world's underbelly and its unbridled ruthlessness.Deputy Police Chief Schiavone is a man with a difficult past and hardly a pristine record of service. Rules appear to apply to others. Yet, at his core, there is a good man who genuinely wants to put away those criminals bent on harming others, especially the innocents. For me, his daily reefer dose was more than a bit of a stretch of one's willing suspension of disbelief. Here he is in Aosta, sent down from his beloved Rome, in order to avoid prison time for his overzealous treatment of a perp (who, in Schiavone eyes, got what he deserved). Regardless, there's a missing teenage girl whose father borrowed money from those less reputable folks. The loanshark wants his money back with some serious interest. As the clock ticks on this girl's life, Schiavone is tracking down every clue, triangulating the travels of the presumed kidnapping vehicle, and trying to find the girl before it's too late.I am grateful to publisher, Harper Collins and LibraryThing First Reads for having provided a free uncorrected proof copy of this book. Their generosity, however, has not influenced this review - the words of which are mine alone. Synopsis (from back cover of uncorrected proof copy of book):A clever, engaging third novel in the Rocco Schiavone mystery series from bestselling Italian author, Antonio Manzini, following the dashing deputy police chief who confronts his most riveting case ever.It’s the bitterly cold spring season in alpine Aosta, and a girl has been kidnapped. Chiara Berguet, daughter of the owners of a local construction firm, was targeted thanks to the sizeable debt her parents owe. But like many a best-laid plan, a blown tire causes the crime to go haywire as the kidnappers’ van skids off the road and crashes into a pair of larch trees. Both the driver and his accomplice die on impact, leaving the girl in the back, gagged and bound and unable to break herself free.Meanwhile Rocco Schiavone wakes to find himself in Anna’s apartment. She’s the best friend of his girlfriend Nora, and memories of the night before, a heated evening with Anna, return to him. As he sneaks out, he sees the first few snowstorm clouds of the spring season move across the sky, an ominous reference that something is off.If trouble at home and a case of kidnapping weren’t enough, Rocco will eventually have to contend with Enzo Baiocchi. Rocco was the one who sent Enzo to prison, and in the process killed Enzo’s brother. Having just escaped from prison, Enzo is heading north with a newly purchased revolver and, clearly, revenge on his mind. And when an unfortunate incident of mistaken identity makes Enzo’s act of revenge even more fiendish, it also presents a gruesome scene for Rocco to discover on his return home.
    • 4/5
      A very interesting novel. I love mysteries, and this novel is a nice change of pace from the ubiquitous police procedural murder inquiry, because it is a kidnapping case. Without giving away any spoilers, the story begins with the kidnappers dying in a car crash, so the suspense of the story is whether the police can find the kidnapping victim who is tied up without anyone left alive who knows where she was left. To maintain the suspense without going over the top, Manzini provides some comic relief with dialog from a talking cat and characters that carry on-going conversations with themselves, non-existent characters, and deceased characters. Manzini does a really excellent job with developing interesting characters. Even though this is novel is the latest installment of the author's series of the "Rocco Schiavone Mysteries", of which I had not the earlier installments, I didn't have any feeling of being lost because I had started in the middle of an story. I enjoy series novels because they give authors the opportunity for really in-depth character development of a series' main characters, but series novel present a problem with how to introduce new readers to the characters without boring readers who have read the prior installments. For example, I enjoyed Sue Grafton's series of mysteries when they began, but now that she is near the end of the alphabet with her A,B,C,...W,X,Y books, I have found the re-introduction of the characters really boring. When reading the latest, I would estimate that at least half of the book was stuff that had been told and retold 20+ times. Since I have not (yet) read the prior adventures of "Rocco Schiavone", I don't know how well the author navigates the other perils of series novels, such as later books being spoilers for the earlier installments. I received a free early reviewer copy of this novel through LibrayThing. I deeply appreciate a free book in general, and in this case I look forward to reading the earlier adventures of Manzini's protagonist.
    • 4/5
      Out of Season by Antonio Manzini is an international bestselling mystery for good reasons. It is one of a series featuring Deputy Chief of Police, Rocco Schiavone and an interesting cast of characters. Rocco has been delegated to northwest Italy. He is likable but temperamental and always finds himself in trouble. He finds many of those he has to work with morons. His personal life is an interesting part of the story. The mystery deepens and will have you guessing until the end. It is a clever book and a very enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book I've read from this author. I enjoyed the book. It had a good mystery and interesting characters. The author's description of Aosta, the city where this takes place, is like another character in the book. The main character is a Deputy Police Chief who conducts his investigations in a questionalbe way at times but gets the job done. I would read another book by this author.
    • 2/5
      Review of Uncorrected ProofChiara Berguet’s kidnappers meet an unfortunate end; now no one knows where the young woman has been imprisoned. Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone has his hands full trying to find Chiara while investigating a local bank and a loan sharking enterprise. And, unbeknownst to Rocco, Enzo Baiocchi has escaped from prison and is seeking revenge for the death of his brother. In this, the third book in the series, Rocco Schiavone remains in his small-town position, still frustrated by his punishment transfer from Rome. He continues to hold conversations with his long-dead wife and remains abrasively antagonistic, rude, grumpy, and cynical. He’s also good at his job, albeit without always working within the law to achieve his purpose. However, repeatedly referenced character traits, such as Rocco’s penchant for Camel cigarettes or his ceaseless frustration over his shoes, quickly grow tiresome. The search for the kidnapped girl keeps the suspense building in this intriguing mystery and the unfolding of the crime in this narrative is first-rate. An unexpected event late in the narrative points to what will presumably become a focus of the next book in the series but the main plot elements of the story all wrap up satisfactorily.There’s a strong sense of place and the characters in this tale are particularly well-drawn, although the overused trope of the incompetent policeman [doubtfully representative of the Italian police force] is especially annoying. At times, the translation from Italian seems a bit awkward, but does not impede the unfolding of the plot. However, the continual, gratuitous use of a specific offensive expletive earns this book a one star deduction in its rating.I received a free copy of this book through the LibraryThing Early Readers program
    • 4/5
      Early Reviewers gives me a chance to try something new, as in this case. I had never heard of this Italian author who has written a few murder mystery best sellers. The book was fast paced, with good doses of suspense, human relations, tragedy and introspection woven in. Although the formula - irreverent, brilliant detective, etc. - has been over used, this author makes it work. The main character comes through as a genuine human being. I want to read another book in this detective series.