I Piergiorgio Pulixi’s books have contributed in recent years to renewing the face of noir fiction and of contemporary thrillers. Born in Cagliari in 1982, after classical studies and a spell spent in London, Pulixi moved to Milan, bringing into his writing a profound bond with Sardinia, the homeland that will often return as a setting and narrative presence in his novels.
His literary formation also runs through the Mama Sabot writing collective, founded by Massimo Carlotto, another leading name in Italian crime fiction, of whom Pulixi was a student: an important experience for shaping a poetics that views noir not merely as entertainment, but as a tool to tell the contradictions of society, violence, power, and the shadowed corners of the human psyche.
From the beginnings with the Biagio Mazzeo saga to the subsequent series devoted to Commissioner Vito Strega and the inspectors Eva Croce and Mara Rais, over the years Pulixi has built a narrative universe populated by tormented characters, intricate investigations, and moral dilemmas. His bestseller stories often move on the border between police procedural and psychological thriller, weaving the investigative dimension with a particular focus on individual and collective wounds.
A path that has led him to engage with varied themes yet recurring: violence against women, terrorism, organized crime, the sense of justice, and the relationship between victims and perpetrators. Issues that emerge both in his novels and in short stories and collaborations with other writers…
Over the course of his career, the prolific Pulixi has also crossed into different narrative territories: from the rawest noir to thriller, from psychological crime to cozy crime, up to youth literature. A versatility evident also in the choice of settings and protagonists, which has allowed him to build interconnected series alongside standalone novels.
From the Biagio Mazzeo quadrilogy to the novels featuring Vito Strega, Eva Croce, and Mara Rais, passing through stand-alone works and forays into the classic crime genre, we trace in chronological order and divided by series some of Piergiorgio Pulixi’s books, increasingly found near the top of the sales charts, following the evolution of a writing that has made noir a tool not only to tell crime, but also the people, places, and complexities hidden behind every investigation.
Contents
- Series featuring Senior Inspector Biagio Mazzeo
- The Songs of Evil
- Series of Giulia Riva and Flavio Caruso
- Series of Chief Commissioner Rosa Lopez
- Series of the Bookseller Marzio Montecristo
- Standalone novels
- Novels for young readers and young adults
The Appointment
Originally published in 2014, long out of catalog and unavailable until SEM recently brought it back, The Appointment marks one of Piergiorgio Pulixi’s early steps into the territory of the psychological thriller. The author crafts a story in which the apparent normality of daily relationships is progressively eroded by obsessions, fears, and truths difficult to face. At its center is an encounter that is destined to radically alter the course of events: what should be an ordinary moment becomes a progressively more unsettling situation, in which the reader is invited to question what they think they know about the protagonists. The author builds tension through claustrophobic narration and by underscoring the ambiguity of the characters, already signaling in this early phase of his career his interest in the darkest corners of human psychology.
The Wrath of Venus
Among Pulixi’s books is also The Wrath of Venus, published by Edizioni CentoAutori in 2017, in which the Sardinian author temporarily abandons the novel-length structure to engage with the short story noir format. The collection gathers several tales centered on the female universe, telling characters poised between fragility, rage, violence, and the desire for redemption. The protagonists may be on the side of the victims or cross the boundary that separates those who suffer from those who inflict, in a continual role reversal. The thread running through the collection is the Commissioner Carla Rame, a detective capable of viewing cases not only through the professional lens but with deep personal involvement. The result is a noir book of short stories that tackles themes such as
The Woman in the Well
Among Pulixi’s latest works, published by Feltrinelli in 2024 in the Narratori Noir line, The Woman in the Well blends thriller, noir, comedy, and metanarrative to tell a story that continually toys with the rules of crime fiction. It all begins with the death of Cristina Mandas, a woman who appears ordinary, yet hides a secret behind her life. Lorenzo Roccaforte, a writer of enormous success now blocked by a creative crisis, investigates her death and discovers a possible path to redemption thanks to a publisher with a past far from conventional. By his side is Ermes Calvino, a ghostwriter called to write what Roccaforte can no longer produce. The two head to Sardinia to uncover details about Cristina’s death and soon find themselves in a case where true crime and investigation blur, challenging the very mechanics of noir.
The Summer of the Blue Comets
In 2025 Camena publishes The Summer of the Blue Comets, a work realized by Pulixi together with the illustrator Daniele Serra, which takes the Sardinian narrator to a territory far from the traditional police-noir. The story of Michele Rivalta moves through psychological thriller, coming-of-age fiction, noir, and paranormal drama, portraying adolescence as a season suspended between fear, loneliness, and self-discovery. Michele is a boy marked by a painful past who, after symbolically descending into the hell of his own memory, discovers an unsettling ability: to sense what lies beyond the boundary of death.
The Crow’s Nest
With The Crow’s Nest, published by Feltrinelli in 2026 in the Narratori Noir series, Piergiorgio Pulixi broadens his criminal universe even further, returning to a restless and wild Sardinia. In the Sinis Peninsula, a young woman vanishes without a trace; months later, the reactivation of her phone leads inspectors Daniel Corvo and Viola Zardi to a macabre clue, a female hand preserved as a kind of signature. It marks the beginning of a hunt for a killer who appears to regard murders as a form of art and who, rather than merely challenge the investigators, seems to have selected them as his next victims. The author thus crafts a noir thriller with gloomy atmospheres, introducing a new investigative duo and tying the novel to the characters and events of The Woman in the Well.
Novels for Children and Young Adults
The Mystery of the Shadow Children
Published by Rizzoli in 2022, The Mystery of the Shadow Children marks Piergiorgio Pulixi’s debut in kid’s literature. The story unfolds in Stonebridge, a U.S. town rocked in 1984 by the simultaneous disappearance of all children under thirteen. Thirty years later, ten-year-old Jake Mitchell discovers that his uncle Ben was among those children and that an old baseball ball connected to him seems to conceal something inexplicable. When his best friend Mike also vanishes into thin air, Jake chooses to search for him, entering an adventure where the boundary between reality and magic becomes ever thinner. Through mystery, suspense, adventure, and the supernatural, Pulixi adapts thriller atmospheres for a young adult audience, building a coming-of-age tale about courage and the discovery of one’s past.
All the Girls Lie
In 2026, Rizzoli, in the Argentovivo line, publishes All the Girls Lie, a young adult thriller that takes Pulixi into the realm of adolescent obsessions, group secrets, and cruel social dynamics. Melissa, nicknamed Sissy by her friends, rejects the police version of her sister Denise’s death, found on the tracks and deemed a suicide. Convinced there’s more to the story, she watches the circle of the school’s most popular girls closely, uncovering a web of friendships, rivalries, and hidden relationships. When other alleged suicides shake the community, her pursuit of the truth grows increasingly dangerous…
