Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Crocodile
    Unavailable
    The Crocodile
    Unavailable
    The Crocodile
    Ebook295 pages4 hours

    The Crocodile

    By Maurizio de Giovanni

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    This is Naples as you’ve never seen it before. A chaotic, shadowy city full of ominous echoes and dark alleyways where each inhabitant seems too absorbed by his or her own problems to give a damn about anybody else. And that is exactly what makes it possible for a cold, methodical killer to commit his atrocious crimes largely undisturbed, to merge with the crowd as if he were invisible. The newspapers call him “The Crocodile” because, like a crocodile, when he devours his own children, he cries. And like a crocodile he is a perfect killing machine: he waits and watches until his prey is within range, and then he strikes.

    Three young people with very diverse backgrounds have been found murdered in three different neighborhoods, each shot with a single bullet, execution style. While his colleagues see little or no connection, Inspector Giuseppe Lojacono, smells a rat. He is driven by his instincts and his own troubled recent history. He has just been transferred to Naples from Sicily where a Mafioso-turned-informant accused him of leaking sensitive information to the mob. Once an estimated member of the mobile unit of the Agrigento police force, Lojacono has lost everything, first and foremost the love of his wife and daughter. But now he’s been given a second chance and a shot at clearing his name. A young magistrate, the beautiful Laura Piras, wants him in Naples. She’s heard of his preternatural skills and his incredible powers of observation and she thinks a man like him is needed in Naples. So it is that Inspector Lojacono is charged with finding the link between the three dead bodies. At the root of these murders, he will discover, is a pain that still burns, a sense of guilt than cannot be purged, and one all-consuming love.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEuropa Editions
    Release dateJul 2, 2013
    ISBN9781609451639
    Unavailable
    The Crocodile
    Author

    Maurizio de Giovanni

    Maurizio de Giovanni's Commissario Ricciardi books are bestsellers across Europe, having sold well over one million copies. De Giovanni is also the author of the contemporary Neapolitan thriller, The Crocodile (Europa, 2013), and the new contemporary Neapolitan series The Bastards of Pizzofalcone."" He lives in Naples with his family.""

    Read more from Maurizio De Giovanni

    Related to The Crocodile

    Related ebooks

    Police Procedural For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Escaped Jaguar

      May 9, 2019

      The Escaped Jaguar
      5 min read

    • Article

      Performance

      Nov 10, 2022

      “Wait here,” the guard said as he shut the door behind him, leaving me by myself. The floor inside the lab was polished, and the air smelled of disinfectant, and yet the room felt unclean. Leaves shook on a tree outside the window, making shadows on

      18 min read

    • Article

      Cristina Rivera Garza

      Jun 15, 2018

      She would remember everything, out of the blue and in full detail. She would see the jade ring wrapped around her ring finger and, immediately, she would see the other jade ring. She would open her eyes wide and, without knowing why, would fall silen

      13 min read

    • Article

      An Afternoon In Her Shoes

      Jul 26, 2022

      An Afternoon In Her Shoes
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Stars at Noon

      Mar 4, 2024

      “Nothing fancy,” I tell him. “The bulbs are very dim …” “Bulb. There's only one bulb.” I relieve my purse of its bulge in the bathroom and discover that the administration of this motel, meaning some sneaky relation of the Señora's, has also been loo

      1 min read

    • Article

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time

      Dec 1, 2023

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time
      9 min read

    • Article

      Hidden Heroes

      Jun 1, 2020

      ‘You complete me,” he murmurs, his eyes focused on the steaming shoulder of lamb I’ve prepared and placed before him. It oozes juices, issuing the scent of garlic-infused lusciousness the way that only roast lamb can. Is it just the lamb that complet

      5 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      May 1, 2019

      We found ourselves to be quite fondof the ad campaignundermining late-stage capitalism: how the sprightly old womankept bursting into private conversationsat the candlelit restaurant and shouting, You can’t eat nickels!!and then doing that little hip

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Girl I Knew Somewhere

      Dec 2, 2021

      The Girl I Knew Somewhere
      6 min read

    • Article

      Anthem Of Our Crazy Age

      Nov 2, 2022

      MY old friend Ena planned every detail of her funeral. When she told me that she had written the eulogy to be delivered by her daughter, I said: ‘Don’t you think that’s cheating?’ ‘No!’ She snapped. ‘I want to set the record straight. I was a very go

      4 min read

    • Article

      Curmudgeon across The Hall

      Dec 27, 2018

      Curmudgeon across The Hall
      4 min read

    • Article

      SCARS On The SOUL

      Jan 12, 2020

      I’m standing in a fiercely lit changing room, waiting for Joao-from-Portugal to bring me smaller jeans and a bigger top. I used to think ‘Joao’ was a totally exotic name until I visited Lisbon and realised that every second man in Portugal is called

      2 min read

    • Article

      L’homme Du Café

      Nov 10, 2021

      L’homme Du Café
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Straw Hat

      Aug 2, 2018

      The Straw Hat
      6 min read

    • Article

      Une Affaire Dangereuse

      Feb 1, 2018

      Une Affaire Dangereuse
      10 min read

    • Article

      Why I Don’t Write

      Mar 7, 2019

      Why I Don’t Write
      6 min read

    • Article

      Come with Me

      Dec 1, 2022

      Come with Me
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Curious Case of the Prisoners in the Wrong Cellblock

      Jan 12, 2018

      This article was published in collaboration with Vice. The female robot voice recording begins: “Press one for English. Para Español oprima el dos.” Life Inside Perspectives from those who work and live in the criminal justice system.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Longer on Moon

      Sep 22, 2022

      Longer on Moon
      19 min read

    • Article

      Interview

      Feb 22, 2021

      Interview
      4 min read

    • Article

      Joshua Mohr: The Time I Robbed a Liquor Store

      Mar 10, 2017

      Our alibi was a sandy blanket in the back of my truck, an acoustic guitar, a knockout brunette in the passenger seat. Our alibi was a night picnic at the beach. When we got pulled over—if we got pulled over—the cop would peer in the cab and he’d thin

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Convict

      Jul 10, 2020

      The Convict
      5 min read

    • Article

      Hard Metal

      Jun 10, 2023

      When Raúl gave me his security job for August, he told me not to see anything. You don’t see nothin’, he said, because we both know I get curious. Sometimes the other guys think I’m soft, the way I get lost in my head. My girlfriend says it’s trauma,

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Little About Why

      Jun 1, 2023

      A Little About Why
      15 min read

    • Article

      The Memento

      Jan 16, 2022

      In the middle of the night, after a particularly tough day of interrogations in a Beijing security facility, the artist and dissident Ai Weiwei began to write what would become 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrow: A memoir. His tough, implacable interrogat

      4 min read

    • Article

      We Don't Talk About That Here

      Nov 4, 2021

      We Don't Talk About That Here
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Sticky Tar Pit of Time

      Sep 11, 2019

      The Sticky Tar Pit of Time
      6 min read

    • Article

      Running Away

      Feb 22, 2021

      Leaving London behind her, Millie drove faster, picturing thousands of crazed fans in pursuit, desperate for what – a lock of her hair? Or Julian; except after the last gig, somehow she knew he wouldn’t follow. She knew from bitter experience that di

      5 min read

    Reviews for The Crocodile

    4/5

    55 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      The Crocodile, by Maurizio De Giovanni, involves Detective Inspectore Giuseppe Lojacono in the hunt for a killer of teenagers on the streets of modern-day Naples. Lojacono has been transferred to Naples after a career setback involving the Sicilian Mafia, his desk assignment now meant to sideline him and keep him away from criminal investigations. But he is soon brought on board in the hunt for this methodical killer of teenagers when his insights into the case are overheard by the attractive Assistant District Attorney Laura Piras. He doesn't buy the organised crime angle, but the pressure is on to find whatever link there might be between the victims that will lead to the discovery of the killer before he strikes again. The young victims all appear innocent of any sort of major wrong doing, so Lojacono, working closely with the Assistant District Attorney, investigates the possibility of links other than between the victims themselves. All the while you the reader know who the killer is, but the insights you periodically get by way of letters he writes to someone dear to him are never quite enough to reveal the why of his actions. The killer's full intent and motive eventually becomes clear as the story culminates in a race against time to save his next intended victim. This story is well crafted, well written and suspenseful right to the end, bitter or otherwise I will not say! This is the second book by De Giovanni that I've read (the first one being 'I Will Have Vengeance' which is set in 1930s Naples), and I can highly recommend it, as I do his other.
    • 4/5
      Quite different from the Ricciardi series, but still worthwhile reading. A policeman from Sicily, Inspector Lojacono, is accused of passing sensitive information to the Mob, so he is sent to Naples and demoted to the "Crime Reports" room of a Naples police station and told not to investigate any crimes. While on the night shift, he is the first at the scene of a murder and can't help himself. He notices the criminal left used tissues and a certain bullet casing at the scene. His colleagues reach a dead end in their investigation, and the assistant DA, having noticed his obvious talent for investigation, requests he be assigned to help her. The novel follows the unnamed perpetrator and his very deliberate MO. He is dubbed by the newspapers the "Crocodile" from his habit of wiping his weepy eye--an eye disease. Lojacono figures out the MO. He compares the man to a crocodile in another way--how he plots his crimes--scoping out his target with every meticulous detail and the man's chilling sangfroid. We follow the investigation. Why are three young people, with no overt connections, targeted? Lojacono opines by killing the young people, the serial killer really aims to devastate someone else close to them.A very exciting mystery, that kept me breathless. I felt the original Italian title: The Method of the Crocodile a better title than that given to the English translation. Highly recommended. the poli
    • 3/5
      PEARL RULED (pp44–45)Eleanora walks along, hugging the wall, and no one sees her.She's clutching a crumpled ball of paper in her hand, and she's crying. Not sobbing, her face isn't twisted in a grimace, but tears roll freely down her cheeks. ...Now what'll happen, Eleanora wonders. How can I tell him? And what will he say when I do? What will we do, the two of us? We're still in school, there's a long road ahead of us, I don't want to force him to change his plans, his ambitions; and I have dreams of my own. I can't throw Mamma and Papa's sacrifices to the wind. In front of her eyes float the images of her parents. What will she say to them? Another spasm, another surge of retching.Eleanora walks along, hugging the wall, and no one sees her.The first and last paragraphs of Chapter 10. Two pages of nothing much, about someone we don't know in an unspelled-out troublesome situation that you'd need to be pretty naive not to recognize instantly. In fact, in 45 pages, having reached Chapter 10 should've warned me that Book'n'Me ain't gonna be besties...though I will say in my own defense that I really, really wanted to love this book the way most others seem to have done and found that I simply am not de Giovanni's perfect reader.It's not like I'm averse to short chapters, or to emotional scenes, or to the plight of the pregnant lassies whose life changes for the worse no matter what...it's just that I can't connect with or care about anyone in these gefilte-fished, stuffed with mashed boneless smelly glop, chapters. Trying too hard to Make Art is my diagnosis of what caused me to stop wanting to flip pages.Dammit! I need a new Italian procedural series to be addicted to since Camilleri's dead!
    • 5/5
      The Crocodile – Brilliant The Crocodile by Maurizio De Giovanni is a brilliant Italian crime thriller which has quirky characters, a great story and a little humour along the way. It is easy to see why De Giovanni is an award winning crime novelist as this gives who has come up with a powerful plot that is well thought out is detailed and at no time does it feel rushed. The Crocodile is a great read as smooth ice cream and stunning as Italian tailoring.Detective Inspector Giuseppe Lojacono has been transferred to Naples from his beloved Sicily as he been accused of assisting the mafia, something he denies. Not trusted by his new colleagues given a none job to keep him away from real police work, Lojacono is alone even his family do not want to talk to him. He has nothing to do other than work, eat and as he cannot sleep work overtime.One night he is the only senior officer on duty and is the first responder to a murder of a young boy. He noticed various clues which the prosecutor remembers while the station captain is busy trying to get Lojacono to go away from the murder scene and back to the station. When more young people are murdered for no apparent reason the pressure is on the police to solve the murders. As the pressure builds the police have no idea why or who committed the crimes and are convinced they are just mafia hits. Lojacono keeps telling his sergeant that they are not mafia hits as they are not noisy enough to be sending the usual messages the mafia want sending out. Ignored by his senior colleagues it is Prosecutor Piras who over hears his theory and invites him in to the investigation. While Lojacono and Piras go one way in the investigation the Station Captain goes in another and cannot believe Lojacono is part of the investigation.Lojacono and Piras chase down their leads as their killer has been given the moniker by the press of The Crocodile, and one thing Lojacono agrees with is that the murderer seems to be the perfect killing machine who is not worried about leaving clues behind. You are able to feel the pace pick up as they realise they really are in a race against time to find the killer before another death can occur.The ending will have you on the edge of your seat as you are swept along in the pace of this thriller as you want to know how things will end. All the way through the novel The Crocodile reveals his inner thoughts towards the murders but does not reveal the reason why until the end. This is a brilliantly written story that has been translated in to English that brings a vibrant Naples to life and makes The Crocodile terrifying. I like the way we get to know each of the victims and their back story without being told if they are connected, only by reading can that be uncovered. De Giovanni makes this not just a brilliantly dark crime thriller but equally brilliant characters that just makes you want more. This novel delivers on all levels and is a fine example of quality writing who knows how to deliver brilliant plots with excellent characters and can deliver the punch at the end. The Crocodile is a brilliant take on a story of revenge, and an exploration of our darkest fears.