Magdalen Nabb & Paolo Vagheggi: The Prosecutor

Magdalen Nabb & Paolo Vagheggi

The Prosecutor

Christina says:

In 1986 Magdalen Nabb, an English journalist living in Florence, and Italian journalist Paolo Vagheggi published their novel THE PROSECUTOR. The plot is loosely based on the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, the christian-democrat prime minister, by the terrorist organisation Brigate Rosse in 1978.

In the book the man who was murdered is called Carlo Rota. The story takes place ten years after the kidnapping. The protagonist is Florence prosecutor Lapo Bardi who owes his brilliant career to the actions he took against terrorism. He is the typical workaholic law enforcement officer who is much closer to his bodyguards Poma and Mastino than to his wife. Bardi is interrogating a man named Gori, an unimportant terrorist , who testifies against his former accomplices. The prosecutor is after Li Causi, a leading member of the Brigate Rosse. Another suspect is a member of Florentine nobility who allegedly collaborates with the terrorists. Apart from that Bardi obsessively hunts a priest who supposedly took Rota’s last confession and gave him the Extreme Unction.

The authors skillfully stage their novel in the social and political situation in Italy in the 70ies and 80ies. They speculate about the involvement of high government circles and the Vatican and let us look at the life of a prosecutor who is constantly in danger and under pressure from all sides. Unfortunately Bardi remains a one-dimensional character. Nabb and Vagheggi failed to spark an interest in their protagonist. The minor characters are just as pale as they are numerous. The one exception is Monsignore Lazurek who at least inspired a kind of sympathy in me.

It’s a pity the fictitious story is so lacking in suspense. Otherwise this would be a successful political novel about an explosive period of Italian history.

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Christina Gross