• 2 Seas Represents: Dutch rights
• Film rights sold to Pepito Production (Italy)

FICTION | LEGAL THRILLER

A story which reveals what goes on behind the scenes of a complicated trial – a “murder without a corpse”.

Eight jury members are faced with a decision between head and heart – the fate of two lovers. A cunning legal thriller endowed with an Agatha Christie–like narrative, and an unforgettable female main character.

Michele, an entrepreneur in his fifties, vanishes into thin air. Nothing to properly motivate a murder investigation, and yet the police notice suspicious activity on his bank accounts, leading them to tap his wife Antonella’s phone. And secrets begin to unfold, including a liaison with a young and penniless musician. The two lovers first accuse each other, then clear each other’s names through contradicting testimonies and attempts to mislead the inquiry. The trial becomes a media event, and eventually eight jurors need to make a difficult decision. One of them in particular has devoted her life to Law, sacrificing her best years as well as her marriage: Virginia finds herself face to face with her past as this case takes her back to a distant time when she made the wrong decision.

Francesco Caringella, former chief of police and criminal court judge in Milan at the time of the “Mani pulite” investigation, is currently president of section at the Italian Council of State. He has been training would-be judges and lawyers for years, and authored several legal works as well as three novels: Il colore del vetro (“The Color of Glass”, 2012), Non sono un assassino (“I am not a Killer”, 2014, awarded the Roma Narrative Prize), Dieci minuti per uccidere (“Ten Minutes to Kill”, 2015). Mondadori has published his essays 10 lezioni sulla giustizia (2017) and La corruzione spuzza (2017), La corruzione spiegata ai ragazzi, che hanno a cuore il futuro del paese (2018) both of them signed with Raffaele Cantone.