Per sempre

"Piergiorgio Pulixi tells us about a reality that in Italy is negated, but which unfortunately is a key part of life. He focuses on the clear and persistent corruption at the heart of the Italian police force. The cycle of Pulixi’s novels, which centres on the Inspector Biagio Mazzeo, is very important because it makes a very precise accusation: very many members of the police have read these books and have agreed with Pulixi’s portrayal. It’s true that the vast majority of police are honest, but there is a small minority who are dishonest, and this fact offered a way for Pulixi to shed light on the problem of corruption, considering it not simply as a national problem but as a wider European issue affecting all police forces. When we think of police novels, and police dramas on television and in film, we often think of America foremost, but from Greece to Germany and throughout all our northern European territories, corruption has become an integral element in the repression, or not, of criminal activity – and this plays a key part in shaping the present relation between crime and society. In Italy, Pulixi develops this theme with an unrivalled bravery, and he always takes a real investigation as his starting point. He always starts from reality itself. The great originality in terms of police corruption here is that, while it used to be a question of individuals, it’s now much, much worse: we’re now talking of a banda , that is, of corruption on a group level. And this banda is perceived within the police force as a kind of family, a group of close friends who choose to work against the police from within. Pulixi has created this “family” and has made Inspector Mazzeo the father figure of it, a role that leads him into confrontations not only within the force itself but also with criminal organizations."