The Recommended Reading Order: Why Publication Order is Key
For readers diving into the dark, rain-slicked streets of Nadia Dalbuono’s Rome, the best way to experience the series is simple: read the books in publication order. Because the Leone Scamarcio series is as much a character study of a deeply conflicted man as it is a set of police investigations, his personal evolution is crucial. Over the course of the five novels, Scamarcio changes from a detective struggling to prove his independence from his father's mafia legacy to a man facing the vulnerabilities of romance and impending fatherhood. Reading out of sequence will spoil the significant shifts in his personal life, his career standing, and his ongoing battle to stay clean in a corrupt system.
Leone Scamarcio Books in Order
1. The Few (2014)
The series opens with The Few, introducing us to Detective Leone Scamarcio. Although he is one of the few honest cops in Rome, his colleagues remain highly suspicious of him because his late father was a powerful boss in the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta. When Scamarcio's superior hands him a sensitive case involving compromising photos of the country's foreign secretary, he is expected to make the scandal disappear. However, when the male prostitutes in the photos turn up dead, and a young American girl is kidnapped from a beach in Elba, Scamarcio realizes the cases are linked. To solve them, he must reluctantly leverage his own mafia connections, setting the tone for his moral tightrope walk.
2. The American (2015)
In the second installment, a man is found hanging from the Ponte Sant'Angelo near the Vatican. The staging closely mimics the real-life 1982 death of Roberto Calvi, known as "God's Banker." What looks like suicide quickly reveals itself to be a massive international conspiracy involving a corrupt cardinal, the CIA, and legacy threads reaching back to the September 11 attacks and America's historical political interference. Scamarcio is warned off by intelligence agents, forcing him to decide how far he is willing to go for the truth. The American was highly acclaimed and longlisted for the 2016 Crime Writers' Association (CWA) Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.
3. The Hit (2016)
The third book brings Scamarcio's past directly to his doorstep. When the family of a powerful, corrupt television executive goes missing, Scamarcio is assigned to the case. He soon discovers the executive has been trading favors with dangerous sponsors. The investigation draws him into direct conflict with Piero Piocosta, his late father's former mafia lieutenant. To protect his career and save the hostages, Scamarcio must leave Rome and travel to Calabria, confronting the dark heritage he has spent his adult life trying to escape.
4. The Extremist (2018)
In The Extremist, Rome is plunged into terror by a series of bombings targeting public spaces, including a preschool and a local cafe. The group claiming responsibility demands to negotiate directly and exclusively with Detective Scamarcio, giving him a 24-hour window to meet their demands. Operating under extreme pressure and forced to bypass his suspicious colleagues and the security services, Scamarcio must unravel the true political motives behind the attacks before time runs out. Note: While some regional editions list this book's release as early 2019, it was first published in February 2018.
5. The Devil (2020)
The final novel in the series presents Scamarcio with his most disturbing case yet: the suspicious death of a teenager named Andrea Borghese. The last people to see the boy alive were five Catholic priests who had performed an exorcism on him. The inquiry draws Scamarcio into a sinister web of pharmaceutical corruption, government bribery, and occult circles. Simultaneously, Scamarcio's personal life reaches a turning point as he prepares for the birth of his child, only to find his new family directly targeted by those who want the Borghese case buried.
Chronological Order vs. Publication Order
Fortunately for readers, there are no complicated prequels, flashbacks, or chronological shifts in the Leone Scamarcio series. The chronological timeline of the narrative matches the publication order exactly. The events of each novel build chronologically on the consequences of the previous book. There are minor discrepancies in publication years depending on the country of release (for example, UK and Australian editions of The Extremist appeared in 2018, whereas US editions surfaced in 2019, and The American saw paperback releases in 2016 after its initial 2015 debut), but following the standard sequence of The Few, The American, The Hit, The Extremist, and The Devil is the definitive way to read the series.
What to Know Before You Start
Nadia Dalbuono’s background as a documentary filmmaker heavily influences the tone of the series. Having moved to Rome in 2006 to work for Fox Television, Dalbuono observed the deep-seated political, religious, and social issues plaguing modern Italy first-hand. As a result, the books read with a gritty, hyper-realistic edge that exposes the corruption of the Vatican, the media, the pharmaceutical industry, and the government. Rome itself acts as a main character—beautiful, historic, and decaying all at once. Unlike traditional cozy Italian mysteries, this series is dark, cynical, and explores the psychological toll of fighting a system where the line between the law and the Mafia is frequently blurred.
Spin-offs, Tie-ins, and Standalones
Currently, the Leone Scamarcio series exists as a self-contained, five-book narrative. Nadia Dalbuono has not published any side stories, short collections, spin-off novels, or co-authored entries set in this universe. Every book is a full-length novel, and there are no extra companion works to track down, making it an easy and rewarding series to collect and read from beginning to end.