The Secrets of HMP Downland (The Calvino Files Series — High Stakes Political Thriller | Spy Thriller | Crime Conspiracy Fiction)

Two governments. One prison. One man who knows too much.

When Italian forensic psychologist Matteo Calvino is summoned to Rome for what is described as a “consultation,” he quickly realises the truth: he’s being sent to a British prison to assess an Italian national both governments want silenced.

Downland Prison, East Sussex, is not like the institutions Calvino knows. Polite on the surface. Brutal underneath. Rules are followed meticulously—until they’re quietly bent. Surveillance is constant. Trust is currency. And silence is enforced.

The prisoner, Lorenzo Valli, is calm, articulate, and dangerously aware of the system closing around him. He isn’t suicidal—but he understands how prisons react to fear. And he knows that Calvino’s report will decide whether he survives the transfer back to Italy… or disappears into procedure.

As Calvino navigates opaque British prison protocols, exhausted officers, and pressure from both Italian and UK authorities, he begins to realise the assessment isn’t really about Valli’s mental health.

It’s about control.
And about Calvino himself.

The Secrets of HMP Downland is a tense, atmospheric European crime thriller that pulls readers deep inside the psychological machinery of modern prisons—where legality and morality quietly part ways, and truth becomes a liability.

Perfect for readers who enjoy:

• Jo Nesbø–style psychological tension

• Donato Carrisi–inspired moral ambiguity

• Dark, procedural thrillers set behind institutional walls

This is not a story about escape.

It’s about what happens when the system decides you’re the problem.