Let It Bleed - Ian Rankin

An earlier John Rebus novel, I think.  Well-written, but Rebus is not quite as sympathetic a character as he becomes later.  Focus on corruption in high places and links between big organized crime and government figures.

Deadline - Barbara Nadel

Another Ikmen mystery.  Exciting, well-written - her style keeps improving.  Takes place in the Pera Palace hotel with a plot line loosely based on Agatha Christie drawing room mysteries.

ZeroZeroZero - Roberto Saviano

A book by a well-known Italian writer who focuses on the mafia.  This book looks at the cartels in Central and South America, and explores the links between the Italian mafia and these cartels.  Above all, it is a catalogue of the incredible brutality of the cartels' method of operation.
It also explores specifically the world of cocaine, and the obscene profits that the cartels accumulate from this trade.  Saviano also looks at how some of the biggest European, British and American banks are involved in laundering this money for the cartels.  He basically maintains that, especially after the 2009 crash, this cocaine money was what was keeping much of the banking system afloat by providing easy liquidity. 
I couldn't finish it - too repetitive, too depressing.  A great example of how big crime, economic elites and big government all work together.

The Shadowland - Elizabeth Kostova

A novel set in post communist Bulgaria.  The beginning and ending are week, but the main body of the story, which recounts the life of a classical musician under the communist regine, is quite interesting.  Kostova paints an interesting picture of what seems to be a forgotten history.  Bulgaria under communisms underwent something similar to what Stalin perpetrated in Russia - suppression of the educated class, random arrests, labour camps, elimination through gulags of certain sectors of the population.  And then, post communist regime, the rise of apparatchiks in the new corrupt capitalist system. 

The Dawn Watch - Maya Jasanoff

A biography of Joseph Conrad.  The author also sets his novels against the historical events and shifts of the time.  Nice integration of historical perspective and literary themes.  Jasanoff is basically developing the idea that Conrad was ahead of his time in exploring the alienation and rootlessness of modern society, the mechanization of work and the passing of skilled workers and tradesmen, and also the predatory nature of modern capitalism hidden beneath its veneer of social improvement.

A History of Modern Italy - Anthony L. Cardoza

Italy from late 1700's to 2016.  Nice concise account of unification and the formation of the Italian State.  You get a sense of who the people are whose names are on so many streets in Italian towns.  (Basically, important figures in the struggle for unification.)
Yet another example of a state that can't seem to escape its historical political culture.  So many conflicting interests - regional competition; state vs. church; competition for dominance within a specific region; district or town; winner take all approach with accompanying corruption and crime; corrupt elites in all areas of leadership who mainly look out for themselves.  Been like this for 1000 years, and no one can seem to change it.  Politicians serious about change are always chased out in the end.  The wealthy and powerful elite doesn't seem to have modified their greed and grasping ways since the heyday of 19th century capitalism.
One thing that leaves me angry is how the current populist parties like the Northern League, etc. can dare to suggest that Italy's problems are the result of immigration!  In fact, they are self-created and self-perpetuated, and have been decades, centuries even, in the making.

In a House of Lies - Ian Rankin

Latest Rankin book.  Very good!  All kinds of stories woven together and crossing each other.   The denouement remains a mystery right until the end.  Rebus is even funnier and more ironic as he ages and speaks from retirement.  No real central issue or theme that I can see - except perhaps the perennial "bureaucratic process is no match for raw intelligence".