Lisabet Sarai: Welcome to Beyond Romance, Mark, and thanks for sharing a bit about your new novel. When I read about your tour, I wondered whether there really was a Bologna massacre. If so, what prompted you to base a novel on this event? If not, where did the whole idea come from?
Mark Hill: In 2019, I was teaching a group of judges and ex-judges in Bologna. It was one of those state sponsored courses that certain Italian institutions organise for privileged social groups, and during those lessons, we started to talk about the Bologna massacre of 1980. In that year, there was a bombing of Bologna Central railway station, which killed 85 people and injured over 200. At 10.25 explosives, which were concealed in an apparently unattended suitcase, were detonated in a waiting room of Bologna station. This explosion destroyed a wall and consequently caused the roof to collapse, destroying most of the building. The Ancona-Chiasso train, which was at rest on Platform 1, was impacted.
Being the summer time, Italy was on holiday, unprepared for a disaster of this type. Countless passers-by and travellers provided first aid and help to victims who were buried beneath the rubble. With so many casualties, there were not enough ambulances available. Therefore, private citizens and emergency services used taxis, buses and private cars to take the victims to the hospitals. Italy closes in the summer! Many hospital departments were on holiday at that time of year. They had to be reopened to accommodate those that had been injured in the blast.
It was Italy’s most serious terrorist attack. Several members of the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR, Armed Revolutionary Nuclei) were subsequently sentenced for the bombing. Further investigations revealed that members of the P2 Masonic lodge and the secret society Propaganda due were behind the attack. Throughout the investigations, elements within the secret services provided several false leads, depistaggi, which created further uncertainty surrounding what had actually happened. We still do not know who was actually responsible.
I did a deep dive through YouTube watching the television news reels from that time, I did some reading around the subject, making sure that all of my reading was in Italian. I read Morando’s “La Strage di Bologna” and “Dossier Strage di Bologna” by Parisi et al. a couple of times. I read up about other terrorist events that occurred around that time in Italy. I decided that the whole period was so compelling and there were so many conspiracy theories that revolved around it, that there was probably enough material for a novel; I think I was right.
With a little dose of reality and a whole lot of imagination, I started writing. I created the classic private investigator character, the villain, Carlos the Jackal, the corrupt Italian politician couldn’t go amiss. Who’s not going to identify with that? A little bit of love interest and off I went.
I disciplined myself to recount a straightforward narrative in chronological order, with a basic structure, using simple ideas and style. It is an attempt to narrate events in a more disciplined way than I had in the past, trying to eradicate any complex descriptive passages in a more high-flown poetic style. When I edited and it sounded like I was showing off, I just eliminated the offending paragraph and rewrote it as I actually perceived it, like I saw it happening step by step.
Recently I have been reading in public from the book here in Italy. I have had to go back to the two books I mentioned before and read up on the actual events of that time. People here in Italy are understandably still interested in trying to understand what went on in that period of Italian history. Although the book is 95% pure fiction, I believe that people have appreciated my interest in the subject. Moreover, the public have been willing to offer questions about my motivation in writing the book, still keen to interpret and understand what actually went on that day.
Blurb
Mitchell Rose and the Bologna Massacre is a crime story that explores the last fifty years of cross-fertilisation between the Italian criminal underworld, its secret services, politics and the judicial system.
When Mitchell Rose is called to Milan by Remo Rhimare, a local judge who wants him to investigate the Bologna bombing of 1980, he knows it would make more sense to turn the job down.
To make things even more complicated, Rhimare also wants Rose to rein in his errant daughter, who is becoming increasingly wayward.
As Rose begins to investigate, the two missions surprisingly become one, culminating in a dreadful dramatic climax.
Excerpt
I was just turning to leave the study when Remo caught me by the arm, causing me to turn and face him.
“There was one other thing.”
“What’s that, Remo?”
“My daughter.”
“Benedetta?” I queried. “Don’t worry about her, she looks like she’s grown up just fine and if she’s lonely any time, I can always give her a call.”
“Not Benedetta.” He shot me a look that was meant to discourage my interest, but only stoked the fires. “Clara.”
“Clara?”
“Yes, my other daughter. She’s not at all like Benedetta. In fact, I’m afraid she may be passing over to the wild side.”
“What seems to be the problem?”
“Well, she isn’t working and she isn’t studying, but she always seems to have money to hand and she spends it like it’s going out of fashion. I’d just like to know where it’s coming from and where it’s all going.”
“So, you’re asking me to sit in on a local terrorist and do some babysitting, see where your little girl spends her days?”
“And her nights; sometimes she doesn’t even come home.”
“I’ll see what I can do. What’s the priority call on these two things?”
“Equal priority, Mitchell. Here’s a copy of her I.D. She normally leaves the house early in the morning before we get up and doesn’t come back till late.”
I continued toward the door and when I opened it, I found Benedetta waiting outside. She accompanied me to the main gate, her head bowed low to the ground. I noticed that the two workers I had seen before were now busy rigging up a state-of-the-art alarm system. I nodded a goodbye in their direction and motioned to leave. They ignored me, preferring to meddle with the wires, the filaments that triggered power.
About the Author
Mark is a novelist, poet, translator and English teacher. He has lived in Cagliari, Italy for 33 years.
His poetry has been published in The UK Poetry Library’s Top Writers of 2012 and the Live Canon 2013 Prize Anthology. In 2016, one of his poems was commissioned, published and performed at The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, for the anniversary of hakespeare’s death. In 2024, he was published by Pierian press, Dreichmag, Cerasus press and Southlight 36 edition. In 2025, he has been published in the Penumbra Journal of Literature, Rituals, Art at California State University Stanislaus, Book of Matches and And Other Poems.
He is the winner of the Azerate poetry prize and his debut poetry collection, “Death and the Insatiable” was published in September 2025. https://hiddenhandbooks.com/azerate-poetry-prize His first novel, Mitchell Rose and The Bologna Massacre, was published by Wallace Publishing in July 2025.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.hill.3192
Twitter: https://x.com/MarkAHill172207
Web https://www.wallacepublishing.co.uk/mark-a-hill.html
Buy Links
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mitchell-Rose-Bologna-Massacre-Mark/dp/B0FCMWCW9M
Amazon USA: https://www.amazon.com/Mitchell-Rose-Bologna-Massacre-Mark-ebook/dp/B0FC8NBRLW
Amazon De: https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Mitchell-Rose-Bologna-Massacre-Mark/dp/B0FCMWCW9M/re
Amazon It: https://www.amazon.it/Mitchell-Rose-Bologna-Massacre-Mark/dp/B0FCMWCW9M
Mark A. Hill will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
