Nine Days in October

In the fall of 1988, Richard Donovan, a professor of art history from Arizona, has come to Italy on sabbatical, bringing his two girls with him—Pam, eleven years old, and Claudia, just turned sixteen.

One Friday evening, while Donovan and the girls are shopping in Rome, a gang of thieves led by Beppe Fiammetti, an ex-con and wannabe revolutionary, launches a violent attack on a nearby postal facility. Their goal? Eight million in U.S. dollars, funds put together in secret by the Italian government to ransom three hydrogeologists kidnapped in the Kurdistan desert.

With inside help, the heist is successful, but in the bloody getaway Claudia is taken hostage.

Renzo Feroni, Director of Italy’s Antiterrorism and Special Operations Service, is tasked by the government with solving the crime. Time is short because the country is just days away from a State visit.

Working with Feroni and Sandra Patrizi, a journalist for La Repubblica, Donovan learns that the heist is part of a much vaster conspiracy. At stake is the fate of the world’s major powers and—what matters most to Donovan—his daughter’s life.