Equal Danger

Developed under Sciascia's hand in the spirit of a parody, Equal Danger has come to be regarded as a wide-ranging political thriller, one of the masterpieces in the genre. District Attorney Varga is shot dead while picking a sprig of jasmine. Then Judge Sanza is killed. Then Judge Azar. Is this string of murders an individual vendetta or a more sinister plot? The charming detective inspector Rogas works his way into the mind of his prime suspect, Cres. The pursuit of truth and justice are Rogas's vocation, but his work is frustrated by a system which defies his understanding. The book, written in 1971, uncannily prefigures the Red Brigade's subsequent killing of magistrates and the Catholic-Communist pact of the late 1970s in Italy.