★Robecchi, Alessandro. Broken Truths. tr. from Italian by Gregory Conti. Other Pr. May 2026. ISBN 9781635425680. pbk. 288p. $17.99. MYSTERY

Italian movie director Manlio Parrini walked away from filmmaking after his cinematic triumph Broken Truths almost 30 years ago. Now 75, he comes up with the idea of adapting and solving the cold case of Italian detective novelist Augusto De Angelis, whose anti-Fascist books were banned and who died under a cloud of mystery in 1944. As Parrini develops his movie and seeks the truth in De Angelis’s death, he’s drawn into a modern mystery when his next-door neighbor is found murdered. Robecchi plays around with storytelling and truth (De Angelis is a real person) as they play out in historical research, detective fiction, and filmmaking, drawing comparisons between the restrictions the real De Angelis encountered during the Fascist Italian regime and the restrictions Parrini encounters caused by the market-driven decisions of international cinema. This singular and layered tale from Carlo Monterossi series author Robecchi, his first book to be translated into English, compellingly depicts artistic collaboration along with the puzzle of a police procedural. VERDICT Fans of Georges Simenon’s Maigret or Anthony Horowitz’s Hawthorne and Horowitz will find much to enjoy in this literary house of mirrors.