ELP

A woman beaten by her husband, domestic violence denied by the victim, the script that too often precedes a murder. Instead, the body that is found in the woods is that of her husband, Roberto Novailloz, a blow to the head and bruising to the face; he was beaten badly before he was killed. Michela Gambino claims it, but Rocco Schiavone already knows this because in the face-to-face interview with the man he was unable to restrain himself.

The murder investigation gets off to a fast start, looking for the car Novailloz was driving on the night of the murder and which is not found, a car owned by Bulleri srl, an apparently clean company but with nervous and reticent owners. Meanwhile, environmentalist demonstrations also begin in the Valley in the wake of those occurring throughout Italy, demonstrative gestures, chickens released on the highway, cows left to graze in Piazza delle Erbe. But the environmentalist protests in Val d'Aosta take on disturbing contours because they are charged with a violence that the boys of the ELP, Liberation Army of the Planet, knows nothing about and repudiates. First an attack in a bar, then a TNT envelope in a leather factory, an explosion that kills the owner, Simone Ferrazzi. Rocco does not believe the ELP's lead, nor the claims that ring false to him, and begins an investigation against the grain, among the victim's familiar folds. Furio and Brizio and Caterina lend him a hand. As always, the detective combines searches and stakeouts with investigation into the pettiness of men, rummaging through the insulting reasons that lead to murder, disenchanted, angry, but incredibly lucid. Around him the team that moves in unison, Fumagalli and Gambino always decisive (and about to get married), D'Intino grappling with an old flame of Mozzagrogna, Sandra Buccellato who does not forget, and of course Marina who is not an illusion.


Antonio Manzini was born in Rome in 1964.
He is an actor, screenwriter and writer.
He graduated from the Silvio d'Amico National Academy of Dramatic Art in Rome in 1988.
He has written screenplays for Alex Infascelli (Il siero della vanità, 2004) and Gabriele Salvatores (Come Dio comanda, 2008).
He is the television author of Il delitto di Via poma (directed by Roberto Faenza), numerous episodes of Squadra Antimafia and Il XII apostolo.
He was editor and screenwriter of the series Benvenuti a tavola 2 and Buscetta boss dei due mondi. In 2016, he directed his first film Cristian e Palletta contro tutti.
In 2005 he published his first novel: Sangue Marcio (Fazi editore), followed by La giostra dei criceti (Einaudi, 2007, reissued by Sellerio, 2017) and the short stories: Il mio tesoro and Giochiamo, with Niccolò Ammaniti (published in Crimini and in Il momento è delicato, Einaudi).
For Sellerio, he has published the novels in the successful series of Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone: Pista nera (2013), La costola di Adamo (2014), Non è stagione (2014), Era di maggio (2015) and 7-7-2007 (2016), Cinque indagini romane per Rocco Schiavone (2016), Pulvis et umbra (2017), Fate il vostro gioco (2018), Rien ne va plus (2019), Ah l'amore l'amore (2020) Vecchie conoscenze (2021) and Le ossa parlano (2022). From these novels is based the TV series Rocco Schiavone, on air on Rai 2 since November 2016, of which Antonio Manzini is scriptwriter together with Maurizio Careddu.
Also for Sellerio he published Sull'orlo del precipizio (2015), several short stories later collected in the anthology L'anello mancante (2018), Ogni riferimento è puramente casuale (2019), Gli ultimi giorni di quiete (2020), La mala erba (2022), Elp (2023) and Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare l’amico misteriosamente scomparso in Sud America? (2023).
For Chiarelettere he published Orfani bianchi (2016).
His novels have been translated in several countries.

His latest novel is Tutti i particolari in cronaca (Mondadori, 2024).

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