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Enemy Within is one of Paul Adam's Italian political thrillers, with a journalist protagonist working back through a decades-old murder that has implications for the contemporary corruption investigations that the magistrates of the Mani Pulite era were running. The plot is solid. The Italian-political-system texture is handled with care.
Adam's strengths are the geography and the small institutional observations. The Roman judiciary, the Sicilian small-town politics, the slightly weary cynicism of the Italian press corps in the period, all carry weight. The thriller machinery is competent rather than gripping.
Three stars. Recommended to readers who like Italian political thrillers. Adam's music mysteries are stronger work.
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