Elizabeth Heider — Children of the Savage City - I.S. Berry

<p><strong>Some cities feed on secrets. Naples is ravenous.</strong><br />A peaceful evening mass at the historic Chiesa del Gesù Nuovo is shattered when a young au pair is killed in one of the cathedral’s quiet chapels. The daughter of the US Ambassador sees it happen—but she'll speak only to one person: Nikki Serafino.<br />Shaken by betrayal in her last high-profile case, Nikki has retreated from the relentless vigilance that once defined her work as liaison between Italian police and the US military. Withdrawn and mistrustful, she works her shifts, cares for her aging family, teaches self-defense classes, and avoids entanglement. But this case threatens her self-imposed invisibility—drawing her into a web of lies and resurfacing old wounds and buried loyalties. The murder investigation leads Nikki and her friend, Naples officer Valerio Alfieri, into a shadow architecture of power: built to protect the guilty and hide their secrets at any cost.<br />Can she and Valerio—each carrying dangerous debts—resist the undertow of corruption that swallows truth whole?<br />Set against the chaos of modern Naples—the city of Roberto Saviano’s Gomorrah and Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend—where grace and corruption share the same narrow streets, Nikki and Valerio navigate a landscape where even the most principled must confront the cost of survival.</p><p><strong>Elizabeth Heider</strong> is the author of <em>May the Wolf Die</em>, named a <em>New York Times</em> Best Crime Novel, a <em>Washington Post</em> Best Mystery, and one of <em>Publishers Weekly</em>’s best books of the year. Her short fiction has been recognized by the Santa Fe Writers Project and New Century Writer Awards. She holds a PhD in physics and most recently worked as a program manager for Microsoft’s AI4Science and as a scientist in the European Space Agency’s human spaceflight program. She's authored original scientific research, a patent, analytical reports for the US government and military, and coauthored a journal article with astronaut Thomas Pesquet. She lived and worked in Naples, Italy, as a civilian analyst embedded with the US Navy’s mission in Africa, where she deployed aboard US and European naval ships. Originally from Utah, she now lives in The Hague, where she's working on the next Nikki Serafino novel.</p><p>Heider is in conversation with <strong>I.S. Berry, </strong>she spent six years as an operations officer for the CIA, serving in wartime Baghdad and elsewhere. She has lived and worked throughout Europe and the Middle East, including two years in Bahrain during the Arab Spring. Her debut spy novel, <em>The Peacock and the Sparrow</em>, was named <em>The Times </em>(London) Thriller of the Year; a Best Book of the Year by <em>The New Yorker</em>, <em>The Times</em>, <em>The Financial Times</em>, <em>The Guardian</em>, <em>The Telegraph</em>, and NPR; and won the Edgar Award, Barry Award, Macavity Award, and International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel. <em>The Times</em> calls Berry one of “the top spy novelists of the 21st century,” and Tim Weiner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of <em>The Mission</em>, calls her “the best spy novelist of her generation.” She’s been featured in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/05/16/is-berry-peacock-and-sparrow/" target="_blank"><em>The Washington Post</em></a>, <a href="https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/is-berry-interview-i-use-my-spy-skills-as-a-writer-53t5qx6bj#:~:text=Ilana%20Berry%20can%20remember,having%20lunch%2C" target="_blank"><em>The Times</em></a>, and <a href="https://wamu.org/story/23/06/01/former-spy-turned-local-author-pens-her-first-spy-novel/" target="_blank">WAMU</a>. Berry is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and Haverford College, and lives in Virginia with her husband and son.</p><p>PURCHASE: </p><p>https://politics-prose.com/book/9780143138198?ic_referral=HW8XYajKaFvSf98xKw6bCBV0mApqDQk6XU3Ivx4C3IIwMx45rTUFcrR4ACYb7Lz0aO_rR9ymiw7YzqWgpXIspAgpBmts1l_zYYBBNCZNUxXPD430fvjNguPIhEL5enlf59W7E2s</p>