A detective accountant. An Italian-German cold case and a good dose of pathos. Between Rome and Monaco a thriller has been bouncing unsolved for 25 years: the murder of Sara Schneider. To sound it out, in the breathtaking pages of a thriller, the sisters Annalisa and Antonella Donati, authors of the debut book “Double bottom“, Maggioli editions.
Young German artisan, designer of original ethnic bags, Sara is in love with Italian art so much that she moves from Germany to Italy. And right inside her laboratory, in the center of Rome, the designer, mother of a 10-year-old son, was killed in 1996, under mysterious circumstances. The killer was never found. A quarter of a century later, in the same commercial fund, Priscilla Giraldi, aka the sorceress of litigation, finds herself working. A brilliant young accountant, a great scholar with a nice first-class syndrome, Priscilla has an exceptional intuition which, if on the one hand allows her to excel in work situations, on the other makes her a true hound when she has a knot to untie. This is what happens in that mysterious shop where the accountant finds herself for a news case. But coincidences don’t exist … Priscilla knows. And when he comes into contact with that crime that raises so many questions, all unanswered, he will throw himself headlong into a frenzied search for the truth. The detective accountant does not give up, and piece by piece, page after page, she manages to reconstruct all the nuances of a mystery that asks to be revealed. At his side, the loyal Ettore, a four-legged investigator with a powerful nose, and the commissioner Cosimo De Martino who will agree to collaborate with the aspiring “cop”.
The interweaving of the plot blends well with the Roman-Bavarian setting where there is no lack of topical notes: the pandemic in the background, the smart working, the desire to be outdoors after the lockdown phases. And at the same time, the protagonist’s vocation not only to listen and analyze the facts, but also to identify with the people with whom she interacts. This inclination emerges in his relationship with the victim’s son, who in the meantime returned to Italy from Monaco where he had moved after the murder of his mother to be assisted by his grandparents. A growing feeling and complicity will arise between the two.
§The authors, at the beginning, juggle with ease and properties of language, fluent never technical, in the world of accountants, narrating Priscilla’s life in fluency between a phone call with the Revenue Agency, a tax bill and a succession file , thus proving to master the subject. Thanks to Antonella Donati, journalist-fiscalist and now also a novelist: passionate about taxes and related legislation, she has already published dozens of ebooks with Maggioli on strictly technical subjects. But the love for literature and design pushed her to compete with her first mystery, four hands with her sister Annalisa who, after years of advertising and marketing, is currently involved in fundraising for an international humanitarian organization. , cultivating travel and writing in his spare time. And the result does not disappoint. The immediate language, the naturalness of the dialogues and the well-defined characters in their daily life and in their intimacy make of Double bottom an enjoyable and pressing thriller at the same time, not without a pleasant ironic nuance.