• Involuntary Witness

  • Guido Guerrieri Series, Book 1
  • By: Gianrico Carofiglio
  • Narrated by: Sean Barrett
  • Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (1,328 ratings)

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Involuntary Witness  By  cover art

Involuntary Witness

By: Gianrico Carofiglio
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
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Publisher's summary

A nine-year-old boy is found murdered at the bottom of a well near a popular beach resort in southern Italy. In what looks like a hopeless case for Guido Guerrieri, a Senegalese peddler is accused of the crime. Faced with small-town racism, Guido attempts to exploit the esoteric workings of the Italian courts. The voice of Sean Barrett brings this gritty Italian detective series to life.

©2005 Gianrico Carofiglio (P)2011 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

“Hard-boiled and sun-dried in equal parts. Where Philip Marlowe would be knocking back bourbon and listening to the snap of fist on jaw, Guido Guerrieri prefers Sicilian wine and Leonard Cohen. The role of Guerrieri is to take on impossible cases that have little chance of success. His efforts to prove his client's innocence bring him into dangerous conflict with Mafia interests. Everything a legal thriller should be.” ( Financial Times)
''At one level an exciting courtroom thriller, but what places it in a superior league is the portrayal of a slice of Italian society not normally encountered in crime fiction and an immensely appealing flawed hero." ( The Times, London)

What listeners say about Involuntary Witness

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Excellence

Carofiglio has imagined this story from the benefit of his real life experiences as an Italian magistrate (similar to much better known attorneys-turned-authors, Grisham and Turow). The peculiarities of the italian legal system are effortlessly woven into the routine of the main character's life so that they are interesting to outsiders, and easily understood.

Patrick Creagh's fluid translation coupled with Sean Barrett's elegant and versatile voice gives the illusion that this book was originally written in English. It is easy to take their efforts for granted, but successfully translated audiobooks are not that common ("The Thief" comes to mind as a poor effort).

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32 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

WOW!

A little bit of Grisham, a little bit of Connolly and a little bit of Rumpole of the Bailey and that really doesn’t touch how good Gianrico Gainfiglio’s books are. The protagonist, Avvocato Guido Guerrieri, is smart, flawed, and has a wonderful self-deprecating humor.

Well written, expertly narrated series about an Italian lawyer and his vibrant world.

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30 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Maturity is the star here

What made the experience of listening to Involuntary Witness the most enjoyable?

A trend in crime fiction seems to be endless musings over simple details of life. Carofiglio goes down that path, too. Yet he makes these musings meaningful rather than pulling you out of the story by wondering what polishing every little detail has to do with moving the story forward. Guido is a man who lives a flawed existance and still manages. I enjoyed being introduced to his world. And the crime in question is topical. I'd have rated it 4.5 stars overall if that was possible.

What about Sean Barrett???s performance did you like?

I've listened to several books by Sean Barrett. His voice and reading truly adds to this story. His sense of worldliness comes through turning what could be a whiny yarn into musings of a man who has lived a full yet flawed life.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly Poignant

What did you love best about Involuntary Witness?

The protagonist of Involuntary Witness is very likable and warm. He is a man whose life is falling apart and the novel tells the story of how he fights back, through the defense of a client accused of murder.

Have you listened to any of Sean Barrett’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have never listened to Sean Barrett before, but I will again. He is an exceptional performer.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Sean Barrett's performance of Abbou, the Senegalese man accused of murder, was surprisingly moving. That character seemed so real to me, my heart went out to him.

Any additional comments?

I am definitely coming for more books in the Guerrieri series. Carofiglio is a great find.

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23 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • ch
  • 12-30-11

Great series...hope audible gets all these books!

I heard an interview of Giancarlo Carofiglio on the Alan Farley radio show Book Talk and subsequently read the last book in the series from my library. It was awesome, and so I've been listening to all the audible copies (books one to three at this point). I love the character's inner dialog, the tight court procedurals, and the life lessons he learns or experiences in each book. The author resists the temptation to preach his point, and lets the action tell the story. I think the reader has just the right tone too. Well done!

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21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Extraordinary Italian "procedural"

Although I use the term "procedural" to identify this wonderful novel with a well-known genre, Involuntary Witness is much, much more. A very personal, first person perspective by a defense attorney in the city of Bari, faced with defending a young African accused of murdering a child. The narrative moves constantly among the trial proceedings and the attorney's personal life, his struggle to come to terms with his divorce, the possibility of a new love, and his jaded view of the law and the courts. It is magnificently narrated by Sean Barrett. I will certainly look for more books by Carofiglio and more performances by Barrett.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Slow, but interesting

Any additional comments?

If this novel is typical, there is a big difference between U.S. and Italian crime novels. Do not expect anything like “Lincoln Lawyer”. The actual crime and trial are secondary to the musings of the main character, Attorney Guido Guerrieri, And it seems that attorneys in Italy prepare for trial ONLY by reading the information given to them by the prosecuting attorney and police without doing any interviewing of witnesses or investigating on their own before trial. It’s very odd. Actually, frustrating is a better word.
I thought that since this is the first book in a series the author had decided to use most of novel introducing the reader to Guido, and you do grow to like him. He often mentions American books, music and art. He is finding himself after a divorce. But now I have started the second book, and more is being revealed about Guido, I am thinking that these books are more about how this man thinks, his humor, his self awareness and how he conducts himself within the legal system, then solving any “crime” or winning any trial.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Tedious - zzzzzzz.

There's an interesting but very tiny and inconsequential courtroom thing hidden inside of this interminable character study of a character that wasn't worth the study. And the level of detail… AAARGH! I really didn't care what the guy wore out of the house to a plot-useless meeting. If you like walking beaches for hours on grey days to find shells… Well, do that. This book will still bore. ZZZZZZ…..

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Well Written

I decided to read “Involuntary Witness” because it was an English translation of an Italian book. Thought I would get a feel of the culture, and as it is a legal mystery, some information about the Italian court system. The author, Gianrico Carofiglio, was a prosecutor in Bari Italy and now is a Senator in Rome. The book opens with Guido Guerrieri, a defense attorney, marriage ending with his wife demanding a divorce. There follows a year long bout of insomnia, panic attacks, depression and barely able to function in his job. He decided to take up boxing which he did when he was a young man and this helps him come out of his depression. He then takes on a case of a Senegalese peddler accused of murdering a young boy. Guerrieri realizes his client is innocent therefore; he is under greater stress to get him off. It was interesting to see the attitudes toward immigration by the Italians. I was most interested in the court system. Apparently there are two types of trials in Italy a shortened procedure which the prosecutor presents his case to the judge, but no witness are called, the advantage to the defendant is a reduced sentence. The other trial is the Assize court in front of two judges and six member jury and a full trial but if found guilty a longer sentence is given. The book is well written and easy to read. Sean Barrett did a good job narrating the book, loved the sound of the Italian words.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

One of my top ten reads for the year.

I don't care for legal mysteries but this will make my top ten reads of the year. More than half the book is about Guido Guerrieri, the Advocato in the criminal courts. The case he is defending is one of a Senegalese peddler who is accused of kidnapping and strangling a small Italian boy whom he was friends with. The case hangs, not on proving someone else did it, nor even proving the accused did not do it. Instead, in a brilliant piece of writing, Guido offers in his closing argument a monologue on the multiple natures of "truth".

Special kudos to Patrick Creagh, the translator. So perfect is his translation that the reader would never guess the book had been written in Italian.

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10 people found this helpful