Review - The Road to Pienza by Garrick Jones
The Road to Pienza
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Volume 2 of The Road to Montepulciano
Posted in Book Reviews on 21 October, 2026
It’s been ten years since Australian Damson O’Reilly found a dead body in the derelict Tuscan farmhouse he’d just purchased. Damson still lives in the house he fixed up and is now a successful writer. He shares his life with Giancarlo, with whom he has an open relationship. The one-time police detective is now a highly regarded lawyer. Damson returns from a book tour of Australia to find his lover obsessed with his latest case, which involves a notorious far right businessman and a famous Italian movie star. The investigation once again plunges Damson and Giancarlo into the ruthless crimes and retributions that happened in the closing days of World War II. Along the way, Damson also encounters the murky world of post-war intelligence agencies.
This unexpected sequel to The Road to Montepulciano offers up another thrilling mystery set in 1960 Italy. The large cast of characters introduced in the previous book play significant roles in this story, so you should read that book before tackling this one. There are even more significant players introduced in this outing, each with a well developed distinct personality. As with most books by this author, you can expect scenes of violence as well as death.
The narration is entirely from Damson’s point of view as he travels around northern Italy helping to investigate events near the end of the war. As I mentioned in my previous review, Damson is a very familiar character for those who have read this author’s other works. This story remains consistent with the person we got to know in the first book. Of course, the man is ten years older now, and perhaps a little wiser in the ways of the world.
Several significant new characters are introduced in this story, and Damson gets very close to at least one of them. Damson has close, often sexual, friendships with several men. In modern terms, he could be described as polyamorous, although the term wasn’t in use at the time. Giancarlo is the man Damson considers “home” but he has strong feelings for many of the other men in his life. He does spend some time trying to sort through his complicated feelings for those he cares about. This story is more thriller than mystery. There’s very little doubt about who did it. The challenge is finding the proof needed to bring the bad guy to justice, and living long enough to see the case through.
“The Road to Pienza” is available from Bookshop.org.
