The more I read of this series, the more I like it. It's partially that this second volume is more streamlined, in that it seems to have fewer moving parts and therefore flows a little more easily (at least it seems that way to me). Mostly, though, it's the clear and firm attachment to the city of Marseilles and the people who live in it. When I say "the people," I'm referring primarily to the immigrant communities that are Izzo's focus. His primary concern is how alienation and economic disadvantage contributes to criminal activity and religious fundamentalism, and his approach - through the protagonist Fabio Montale - is so humane, and so generally thoughtful and compassionate that the ongoing violence comes across as sad endurance more than anything else. And wasteful as well, as people are ground down due to circumstance, racism, and corruption directed at them both by their own communities and by the state.

And throughout this, there is Marseilles. A melting pot centuries in the making, trying to find its identity within an ever more connected Europe. The love and exhaustion that Izzo has for his city shines through, and it's just very appealing to read... both depressing and hopeful and incisive at once. I'm just very impressed by it.