A Private Venus

In the first installment of the prizewinning Duca Lamberti Quartet from the godfather of Italian noir, a disgraced doctor investigating the murder of a young woman uncovers a shocking network of trafficking and exploitation in 1960s Milan.

Newly released from prison, and without his medical license, Duca Lamberti is at a loose end. When Milan’s police superintendent points him toward a job—as a favor to Duca’s late father, who was a trusted member of the force—he is not in a position to refuse. And so Duca finds himself employed by the wealthy plastics magnate Pietro Auseri, tasked with finding a medical intervention for Auseri’s son, Davide, who is slowly drinking himself to death.

At first, there seems to be nothing wrong with the young man: he’s healthy, reasonably good-looking, set up for a bright future. But Duca discovers that Davide has a terrible secret—one that threatens to consume him. Following a trail linked to the unsolved murder of a young woman, Duca unravels a dark underworld beneath the glitz and glamour of the cosmopolitan city, one that destroys young women like the one whose path crossed with Davide’s. Gruff, world-weary, and disillusioned, Duca nevertheless finds himself driven to seek truth and justice on behalf of those abandoned and cast aside by the modern world.

First published in 1966, A Private Venus introduces one of the most compelling and memorable protagonists in crime fiction, from a master of Italian noir.Giorgio Scerbanenco (1911-1969) was born in Kiev, in what was then the Russian Empire. His family emigrated to Rome, Italy, and later moved to Milan when he was sixteen. Scerbanenco was a prolific writer and journalist who first gained major acclaim for his crime novels, including the award-winning Duca Lamberti Quartet. Known as the “Italian Simenon” and the “godfather of Italian noir,” his pioneering work focused on the crime and desperation of 1960s Italy. He was the first to exploit the conventions of the American hard-boiled genre to critique Italian society and politics, and tackled themes including violence against women, the rise of organized crime, and urbanization and alienation.Translated by Howard Curtis