The Ballad of Mila

Pray the cops find you first… Imagine Elmore Leonard behind the wheel of a car in Grand Theft Autoas one Italian woman sets out to cut the mafia down to size – one limb at a time… Two perfectly matched gangs are fighting for control of the north-east Italian region of Venetia. But a formidable young woman with vengeance on her mind has plans to upset the balance. Abandoned by her mother and violated by a gang of criminals just after they slaughtered her father, Mila Zago is a cold-blooded killer, a deadly assassin. Brought up by her grandfather on the Sette Comuni plateau under a rigid martial code, she returns home to seek her revenge, conspiring to create a spectacular showdown reminiscent A Fistful of Dollars. The Ballad of Mila is the first novel in an ongoing series focused on the formidable female Italian bounty hunter Mila Zago, a.k.a. Red Dread. As well as being shortlisted for the Premio Scerbanenco / La Stampa prize, it won the Premio Speciale Valpolicella 2011, and in its graphic novel format was awarded the the Premio Leone di Narnia as “Best Italian comic book series of the year”.