The book paints a grim, atmospheric portrait of a Rome overrun by rats, corruption, and social disparities.
Lagioia spent four years interviewing those involved and corresponding with the killers to reconstruct the events.
In a nondescript apartment on the outskirts of Rome, two "ordinary" young men from respectable families—Manuel Foffo and Marco Prato—tortured and killed a stranger after a days-long bender of drugs and alcohol. There was no motive. No previous history of violence. Just a senseless, inexplicable act of evil. Why it’s a must-read: