Di Fulvio, Luca 1957-

PERSONAL:

Born May 13, 1957, in Rome, Italy.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Rome, Italy.

CAREER:

Writer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

The Mannequin Man was named one of the ten best European crime novels of 2003 by Le Point (France).

WRITINGS:

Zelter, Zelig (Milan, Italy), 1996.

L'impagliatore, Einaudi (Torino, Italy), 2000, translation by Patrick McKeown published as The Mannequin Man, Bitter Lemon Press (London, England), 2005.

Dover Beach, Mursia (Milan, Italy), 2002.

La Scala Di Dioniso, Mondadori (Milan, Italy), 2005.

Also author of screenplay for film adaptation of L'impagliatore titled Eyes of Crystal. Also author of children's books under a pseudonym.

ADAPTATIONS:

L'impagliatore was adapted for film and titled Eyes of Crystal; Dover Beach is being adapted for film.

SIDELIGHTS:

Luca Di Fulvio is an Italian writer whose thrillers are often compared to the novels of Silence of the Lambs writer Thomas Harris. Di Fulvio has a lighter side, as well, in that he writes children's fairy tales under a pseudonym.

The Mannequin Man is the English-language version of Di Fulvio's L'impagliatore, the story of a serial killer. Set in an Italian port city that is experiencing a garbage collectors's strike, it finds Inspector Giacomo Amaldi dealing with the killer and the strike, as well as worrying about a colleague dying of cancer and Giudatta Luzzatto, a young female student who is being stalked and is receiving phone calls from the stalker describing her eventual fate. The killer is a taxidermist who kills for body parts and leaves mutilated bodies in his wake. Amaldi's partner, Frese, is working on a cold case involving an orphanage fire, the clue to which lies with the dying policeman. Amaldi and Frese wade through the mounting piles of stinking garbage in their search for the killer as the number of victims grows.

A Publishers Weekly contributor who praised Di Fulvio's writing, commented that he "deftly walks both sides of the noir line by letting us in on the joke."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 2006, Frank Sennett, review of The Mannequin Man, p. 31.

Publishers Weekly, October 23, 2006, review of The Mannequin Man, p. 34.

ONLINE

I Love a Mystery Newsletter,http://www.iloveamysterynewsletter.com/ (July 19, 2007), Steven Sill, review of The Mannequin Man.

Midwest Book Review,http://www.midwestbookreview.com/ (July 19, 2007), Harriet Klausner, review of The Mannequin Man.

ReviewingTheEvidence.com,http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com/ (July 19, 2007, Sharon Wheeler, review of The Mannequin Man.