Tom Benjamin

Tom Benjamin began his career as a reporter in north London before becoming a spokesman for Scotland Yard where he was a frequent visitor, for strictly professional reasons, to its famed Black Museum. He went on to work in international aid and public health, eventually heading up drugs awareness campaign FRANK, before moving to Bologna with his Italian wife.

Although Tom enjoys the Italian lifestyle to the full, his first job in Bologna as a doorman at a homeless canteen exposed him to an Italy less travelled and helped inspire his debut A Quiet Death In Italy. English detective Daniel Leicester walks the shadowy porticoes of ‘the red city’ in a series that evokes the beauty of Bologna but doesn’t spare her blushes. The reader can expect to be served up equal servings of the local cuisine and ubiquitous graffiti, and it will come as no surprise to learn Bologna is the home of the Italian giallo – a crime genre Tom very much admires.

Lauded by the likes of CWA dagger winners MW Craven and Trevor Wood, the second installment of the Bologna-set Daniel Leicester series, The Hunting Season, was published by Constable in May 2021. This was followed by Requiem in La Rossa in 2022 and Italian Rules in 2023. You can buy Tom’s books via the website or links below. Tom posts on social media as Tombenjaminsays