tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-949510824833800722024-03-27T23:54:16.956+00:00Crime Scene ItalyNews, reviews and information for fans of crime fiction set in ItalyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-50462683226011537792024-02-20T22:55:00.002+00:002024-02-21T10:20:21.348+00:00Paganini’s Ghost<h3 style="text-align: left;">A Giovanni Castiglione novel by Paul Adam</h3><p><b><i></i></b></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju5jr88VFmM9bVGS5XmNwStKk9zFDe9sKJk6La12EMPd81fX-gRwlseAXTNM1tdAC2POwxrmViWQnSBPXGHaGjTmAm_weDor1aB6YTwlk8YvxEHks0ZNhqo2qQIM1E_QgP5DGZhDqZ0dMpK6tzySPBWGXFUoqahFj6-kjgJrdXWRkewpr8P4Famy1mhG1C/s1500/81KVLdjUx+L._SL1500_.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="970" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju5jr88VFmM9bVGS5XmNwStKk9zFDe9sKJk6La12EMPd81fX-gRwlseAXTNM1tdAC2POwxrmViWQnSBPXGHaGjTmAm_weDor1aB6YTwlk8YvxEHks0ZNhqo2qQIM1E_QgP5DGZhDqZ0dMpK6tzySPBWGXFUoqahFj6-kjgJrdXWRkewpr8P4Famy1mhG1C/s320/81KVLdjUx+L._SL1500_.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paganini's Ghost features the<br />luthier-detective Giovanni Castiglione</td></tr></tbody></table><b><i>Paganini’s Ghost</i> is another enjoyable musical mystery set in Cremona in Lombardy, from Paul Adam, the author of <i>The Rainaldi Quarter</i> (first published as <i>Sleeper</i>). </b><p></p><p>In this novel, the historical figure of virtuoso violinist <b>Niccolo Paganini</b> is at the centre of the story. Paganini’s famous violin, <i>Il Cannone</i> - the cannon - is kept in a museum in Genoa and is only ever played at special concerts by top virtuoso violinists who have won international competitions.</p><p>A young Russian virtuoso violinist, Yevgeny Ivanov, has been given the honour of playing <i>Il Cannone</i> in the cathedral in <b>Cremona,</b> the city where <i>Il Cannone</i> was originally made by the luthier <b>Guarneri del Gesù.</b></p><p>When the violin suffers slight damage, Ivanov turns to retired Cremonese luthier <b>Giovanni Castiglione</b> for help with detecting the fault and, as a result, the two men become friends.</p><p>Castiglione attends Ivanov’s concert in the cathedral and the subsequent reception at the town hall. </p><p>The next day, his friend, the detective <b>Antonio Guastafeste,</b> is called in to investigate the death of a Parisian art dealer, whose body was found in his hotel room the day after the concert.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">He co-opts Castiglione to aid his investigation, with the permission of the police, because the art dealer had a fragment of sheet music in his wallet that had belonged to Ivanov. </div><p></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_kH23FVlAQ5A4Mqf3WtABSnI-2Z2-LAJYbd6W-0EUAiMuvy-sY4Z5s41uMQcTuUFSszlGP5F3D4GcriVQfSiYFm3Rw3jtlwOrr3JNyJj6dEFII0OZ26kZncbV3GtF-XNVjXWkOCQMF2YvWrXPZfQZfnam3SXqqwEKgslvz4hWqjx9gvfEaZbYPZfXSlPZ/s591/Bartolomeo_giuseppe_guarneri,_violino_cannone,_appartenuto_a_niccol%C3%B2_paganini,_cremona_1743.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The real Il Cannone, as played by Paganini in the 19th century, is kept in a museum in Genoa" border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="591" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_kH23FVlAQ5A4Mqf3WtABSnI-2Z2-LAJYbd6W-0EUAiMuvy-sY4Z5s41uMQcTuUFSszlGP5F3D4GcriVQfSiYFm3Rw3jtlwOrr3JNyJj6dEFII0OZ26kZncbV3GtF-XNVjXWkOCQMF2YvWrXPZfQZfnam3SXqqwEKgslvz4hWqjx9gvfEaZbYPZfXSlPZ/w320-h119/Bartolomeo_giuseppe_guarneri,_violino_cannone,_appartenuto_a_niccol%C3%B2_paganini,_cremona_1743.JPG" title="The real Il Cannone, as played by Paganini in the 19th century, is kept in a museum in Genoa" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The real <i>Il Cannone</i>, as played by Paganini in the<br />19th century, is kept in a museum in Genoa</td></tr></tbody></table>The mild-mannered retired luthier once again finds himself on the trail of a murderer and he is faced with trying to unravel a musical mystery that has been unsolved for more than a century.<p></p><p>Castiglione and Guastafeste discover a tantalising tangle of love, deception, and greed, and they follow a trail that leads back to the great Paganini and his lover, Elisa Bonaparte, the sister of Napoleon, and also involves Catherine the Great of Russia.</p><p>The pair must solve a mystery that dates back more than a century to give them the answer to this modern-day murder.</p><p><i>Paganini’s Ghost</i> - book two of Adams’s Cremona Mysteries trilogy - is packed with fascinating historical and musical details and also provides the reader with a gripping mystery that will keep them turning the pages.</p><p>Buy <i>Paganini's Ghost</i> from <a href="’https://amzn.to/49iVlRa" target="_blank">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b></b></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFLx_ve1eo7E9DiWmy4gFzpzWU2SAOMZEwwutfPrbGuXMMt_-G_Tjtj5fXKA7JxdYD6F2fJ0CCIIu1chCSDGJ2MnnxAjp4_87qoamVazWs4_iEbqc_Gh9eIdLuThtaRkd47ICIo8YYU7Po0SMD2U7_C6cr_Aie9hOuk-929-V1MsldhbDYnYGQ8MZ8IEjZ/s500/9780099536659.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Uniform Justice is Leon's 12th Brunetti mystery" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="324" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFLx_ve1eo7E9DiWmy4gFzpzWU2SAOMZEwwutfPrbGuXMMt_-G_Tjtj5fXKA7JxdYD6F2fJ0CCIIu1chCSDGJ2MnnxAjp4_87qoamVazWs4_iEbqc_Gh9eIdLuThtaRkd47ICIo8YYU7Po0SMD2U7_C6cr_Aie9hOuk-929-V1MsldhbDYnYGQ8MZ8IEjZ/w170-h264/9780099536659.jpg" title="Uniform Justice is Leon's 12th Brunetti mystery" width="170" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Uniform Justice</i> is Leon's<br />12th Brunetti mystery</td></tr></tbody></table><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>I found this to be the saddest of all the Commissario
Brunetti novels that I have reviewed so far. </b><o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Brunetti and his officers are investigating the death
of a young military cadet who is found hanged in the barracks of an elite
military academy in <b>Venice</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Although Brunetti and his wife, Paola, have never had
much sympathy for the Italian armed forces, the Commissario cannot help but
feel sorry for the young man, who is close in age to his own son, and he also has some sympathy for his parents.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But he is irritated by the arrogant, high-handed
attitude of the boy’s teachers and fellow students at the academy and the
apparent unwillingness of the boy’s family to open up to him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He is not prepared to just accept that the boy’s death
is suicide without investigating the circumstances thoroughly and he eventually
uncovers the truth, unpalatable though it is found to be.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I would not want to put anyone off from reading
<i>Uniform Justice</i>, particularly if you are reading Donna Leon’s Brunetti novels
in order, but it is the bleakest of her books that I have read so far. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, it is always a pleasure to read the author’s descriptions
of Venice, which is now her adopted home city, and I look forward to moving on
to read the next novel in the series. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Buy <i>Uniform Justice</i> from <a href="https://amzn.to/3MKsqw0" target="_blank">
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</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.crimesceneitaly.com">Home</a></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-27598700515112596102023-07-31T21:25:00.001+01:002023-07-31T23:35:55.818+01:00The Medici Murders by David Hewson<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Carnevale chaos served up with a generous helping of
history</span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b></b></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-G7QMEA0Lr67iN5AEJeGITCTSwWg14x9pyROp-1lelsoGukKzKsFcM4bPcrjjppgHQWJH2EznjeZHaldPKs8tfzK7MWHrF-jMdZu95CzIXGvhNQliOGHGAHRdoFaHd0ceA0C_ZOBwU6eiaU_BilzCWV65PL8yGBGpv9giTHQAwmcbLVg85wQ2_--ffVbz/s1280/venice-gbd35f7306_1280.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Medici Murders is set in Venice during Carnevale" border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="853" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-G7QMEA0Lr67iN5AEJeGITCTSwWg14x9pyROp-1lelsoGukKzKsFcM4bPcrjjppgHQWJH2EznjeZHaldPKs8tfzK7MWHrF-jMdZu95CzIXGvhNQliOGHGAHRdoFaHd0ceA0C_ZOBwU6eiaU_BilzCWV65PL8yGBGpv9giTHQAwmcbLVg85wQ2_--ffVbz/w213-h320/venice-gbd35f7306_1280.jpg" title="The Medici Murders is set in Venice during Carnevale" width="213" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Medici Murders</i> is set in<br />Venice during Carnevale</td></tr></tbody></table><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>This novel set in Venice has a very likeable main
character, a retired archivist named Arnold Clover, who suddenly finds himself having
to help the Carabinieri with a murder investigation. </b><o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Arnold and his wife had planned to live out their
retirement years in Venice and had managed to buy a small apartment there, but
on the eve of their departure from England to start their new life, Arnold’s
wife unexpectedly died because of a deteriorating health condition.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">With his house sold and nothing left for him in London,
Arnold sadly had to make the move alone. But after a year, he has settled in and,
although still missing his wife, he has made some friends in Venice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But then his peace is shattered when ghosts from his
past arrive in <i>la Serenissima </i>and bring their troubles to his door.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>David Hewson’s</b> novel, <i>The Medici Murders, </i>which was published
in 2022, is set during the annual <b>Carnevale</b>, a time of year when tourists roam
the chilly <i>calle</i> of Venice wearing bizarre costumes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Arnold, as a British expat, is commandeered by
Carabinieri officer <b>Valentina Fabbri</b> to help him solve the murder of a
well-known British TV historian, <b>Marmaduke Godolphin</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Although Arnold has never thought of Godolphin as a
friend, he knows of him because Godolphin had been a tutor at Arnold’s
Cambridge college. Arnold had also recently been hired by him, via a third
party, a Venetian archivist he has met, to go through some historical papers Godolphin
has acquired.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Among the papers, Godolphin believed there would be previously
unknown information about the murder of fugitive assassin <b>Lorenzino de’ Medici </b>in
Venice, exactly 500 years before.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">With Godolphin on the trip are other people Arnold
remembers from his Cambridge days, who had been part of Godolphin’s exclusive circle
of budding historians, while Arnold had been a mere looker-on.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiz5z7vLYIwTmn55j_IFYNANM94E3_vfgB9VlG9kvrCpeyrz9lZJr-JK7hoT-PSoDGYwj4Zys6QmIjbQo9ycC3qbapbqKKJE4X80X8iL7lCXs5veAU6NppmTvzGL3Pu3WqNu99D_PscH57dUh_sM-u1_Qb_JTwCdt7nsa09xKUJWbQtnrreojgBWkq0x3X/s500/9781838858582.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Medici Murders was published in 2022" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="326" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiz5z7vLYIwTmn55j_IFYNANM94E3_vfgB9VlG9kvrCpeyrz9lZJr-JK7hoT-PSoDGYwj4Zys6QmIjbQo9ycC3qbapbqKKJE4X80X8iL7lCXs5veAU6NppmTvzGL3Pu3WqNu99D_PscH57dUh_sM-u1_Qb_JTwCdt7nsa09xKUJWbQtnrreojgBWkq0x3X/w209-h320/9781838858582.jpg" title="The Medici Murders was published in 2022" width="209" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Medici Murders</i> was<br />published in 2022</td></tr></tbody></table><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When Godolphin is found murdered in the exact spot
Lorenzino de’ Medici had been killed in, the Carabinieri demand Arnold’s
assistance, because the people who have accompanied Godolphin to Venice have
now become their main suspects.<o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This novel will appeal to readers of <b>Donna Leon </b>and
<b>Philip Gwynne Jones</b>, or to anyone who enjoys a crime novel set in Venice with a
generous sprinkling of Italian history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">David Hewson is a former journalist with <i>The Times, The Sunday Times </i>and <i>The Independent.</i> He has written more than 30 novels,
including a series of crime novels set in Rome. He now lives near Canterbury in
Kent.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The novel is a whodunit, but it also explores Arnold’s
personal tragedy. After the retired archivist arrives at the solution to the
mystery, he has the glimpse of a chance of a relationship with someone who
never looked twice at him when they were at Cambridge together. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But Arnold shows his independent spirit and there is a
surprise for the reader at the end. Let us hope David Hewson writes more about
the adventures in Venice of this intelligent, retired archivist.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">Buy <i>The Medici Murders</i> from <a href="https://amzn.to/456EzCu" target="_blank">
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In <i>Sleeper</i>, Paul Adam brings Cremona to life for the reader. It is a city that is perhaps not as well known as Milan, Bergamo, or Mantua, but like those other famous cities in Lombardy, Cremona has a long and fascinating history.</b></p><p>Cremona has also become synonymous in people’s minds with violin making and, without forcing too much knowledge on the reader, Adam imparts a lot of the history and tradition of this craft during the novel.</p><p>The story begins in the countryside outside Cremona when four men meet at a house for their monthly chance to play music together as a string quartet. One of them is a priest, another a policeman, and the other two are expert luthiers, the craftsmen who make stringed instruments.</p><p>After enjoying music, wine, and laughter together, they disperse one after the other. But when one of the luthiers does not arrive back at his home as expected, the other luthier, <b>Gianni Castiglione,</b> and the policeman, <b>Antonio Guastafeste, </b>go to look for him at his workshop in Cremona, where they find him dead, having been stabbed with one of his own chisels.</p><p>It is a mystery to them why anyone would want to kill the elderly luthier, Tomaso Rainaldi, who was not particularly well off and was liked by everyone who knew him, The only clue that Castiglione and Guastafeste can go on is that Rainaldi seems to have become involved in a quest to track down a rare and fabled violin made by one of the famous Cremonese master luthiers. An instrument, if it exists, that could potentially be worth millions.</p><p>The book was so well written it was a delight to read. In Castiglione, the novel has an unusual protagonist and amateur sleuth because the luthier is no longer young. Although he is semi-retired, he still practises the art of violin making, and mending, at his home and he has an expert knowledge of the instrument. Therefore, Guastafeste persuades his superiors to allow his friend to join the official police investigation.</p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUtqk2RCp3aGjAhbo7nj4vjn2e5nUk3nCh47nUaP6GdgsJa09qKFpgPh5qCdkCfpQ2bR0rSktA498dM4efCkvZNb4rrH3WDy4QnjERK6QLCI8UoHU5LwOBRB4MkcaPPiG1qEg_FkxYuyffOXsdznsK7Ezn-bURmRVsHevZ3xqLsjvBNbBDK2eTPZCjZg/s960/cremona-1602304_960_720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The action in Sleeper takes place against the backcloth of the mediaeval city of Cremona" border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="960" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUtqk2RCp3aGjAhbo7nj4vjn2e5nUk3nCh47nUaP6GdgsJa09qKFpgPh5qCdkCfpQ2bR0rSktA498dM4efCkvZNb4rrH3WDy4QnjERK6QLCI8UoHU5LwOBRB4MkcaPPiG1qEg_FkxYuyffOXsdznsK7Ezn-bURmRVsHevZ3xqLsjvBNbBDK2eTPZCjZg/w320-h211/cremona-1602304_960_720.jpg" title="The action in Sleeper takes place against the backcloth of the mediaeval city of Cremona" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The action in <i>Sleeper</i> takes place against the <br />backcloth of the mediaeval city of Cremona</td></tr></tbody></table>Castiglione has some long shadows from his past and reveals his flaws to the reader as the novel progresses. The story is told in the first person and the reader can get inside his head and know what Castiglione is thinking at times. Yet Adam succeeds in making the reader get behind Castiglione and to want to urge him on in his quest to find out who murdered his friend.</p><p>Castiglione and Guastafeste hope that following the trail leading to the famous violin will help them unmask the murderer and so they take up Rainaldi’s mission themselves, retracing his recent travels to Milan, Venice, and other interesting places in northern Italy, as well as visiting England briefly.</p><p>Paul Adam has written 13 novels for adults and a trilogy of thrillers for children. A former journalist, he now lives in Sheffield, but he has worked in Rome and travelled widely in Italy. He plays the violin himself and as a result became interested in how violins are made.</p><p>He chose Cremona as his setting because it was home to the masters of violin making, Stradivari, Guarneri, and Amati. It has been the centre of violin making for centuries and is still a city of luthiers. He said in an interview that he did his research in Cremona in person to make sure he described his locations and the atmosphere of the city accurately.</p><p><i>Sleeper </i>was first published in 2004 by Endeavour Publishing, but was republished under the title of <i>The Rainaldi Quartet</i> by Macmillan in 2007. There are another two books by Adam making up a Cremona trilogy, <i>Paganini’s Ghost</i> and <i>The Hardanger Riddle.</i></p><p>I am packing a copy of <i>Paganini’s Ghost</i> to take on holiday with me in a few days, when I will be visiting, guess where, Cremona! Can’t wait to read it.</p><p>Buy <i>Sleeper </i>(or <i>The Rainaldi Quartet</i>) from <a href="https://amzn.to/42BVWuf" target="_blank">
<input b90bb="" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor=" onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor=" style="background-color: #1b90bb; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-left-width: 1px; border-radius: 5px; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: 1px; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px; margin: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding: 8px;" this.style.bordercolor="#d5d5d5" this.style.color="#FFFFFF" type="button" value="Amazon" /></a></p><p><a href="http://www.crimesceneitaly.com">Home</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-18973552209848706612023-03-02T22:48:00.002+00:002023-03-02T22:48:42.220+00:00The Dance of the Seagull<h3 style="text-align: left;">An Inspector Montalbano Mystery by Andrea Camilleri</h3><p><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWzytknkOMqRjYJYiVJdHz8HZQb0qq11HxGqDBbWCgK7Rke4Gs8M8A1ayoNyjnWoP3tmBj9lGlsNok5HNNE3UQ-T-rwoniOAvDQxAHmaj5W-BikqOHyOU3cTX7YGmLef_mhvEXMAtAmLzoA255SqRXZmiGxq716AbA9QSwVlFfZK2EWiRViZJyjCrdlw/s1920/seagull-g69d69d1df_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A seagull fills Montalbano with a sense of foreboding at the start of compelling story" border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWzytknkOMqRjYJYiVJdHz8HZQb0qq11HxGqDBbWCgK7Rke4Gs8M8A1ayoNyjnWoP3tmBj9lGlsNok5HNNE3UQ-T-rwoniOAvDQxAHmaj5W-BikqOHyOU3cTX7YGmLef_mhvEXMAtAmLzoA255SqRXZmiGxq716AbA9QSwVlFfZK2EWiRViZJyjCrdlw/w320-h213/seagull-g69d69d1df_1920.jpg" title="A seagull fills Montalbano with a sense of foreboding at the start of compelling story" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A seagull fills Montalbano with a sense of <br />foreboding at the start of compelling story</td></tr></tbody></table>Inspector Montalbano is left with a strange sense of foreboding when he sees a seagull die on the beach in front of the terrace of his villa, after the bird had performed a strange spinning motion with one wing open, inscribing a circle.</b></p><p>Afterwards he goes to the airport to meet his girlfriend, Livia, who has flown to Sicily from her home town of Genoa to spend some quiet time with him. Montalbano has booked some leave from work so that they can visit some of the island’s Baroque cities that Livia has never seen.</p><p>He leaves Livia at his home to go into the police station to finish off some routine work before starting his holiday. While he is in his office, the wife of <b>Fazio, </b>one of his officers, comes in to see him to say she is worried about her husband, who is missing and hasn’t contacted her as he usually does when he has to work all night.</p><p>The circumstances are worrying and Montalbano feels he has to look into it straight away. He visits the port with his deputy, <b>Mimi Augello,</b> because the night before, Fazio had told his wife he was going there to meet Montalbano.</p><p>A customs officer tells them that the previous night he heard shots while on duty. Montalbano thinks Fazio may have gone to investigate something at the port on his own and he becomes worried. He is very fond of Fazio and therefore the Inspector becomes totally focused on the investigation, realising that the longer Fazio is missing, the more chance there is that he is dead.</p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lf-DFqbWjPA5h1OGFuBVnC2d-4n04hU0ZMc9m0ghYiNfGOQU--ChvdixQ0egRuhylJ34MHXwzAOTf3qx9vdfG0iu58oZALWqFnVYEma1whPFju0lfu88vzosXXYoN9wjmP1hn7L8MveQP5dG3apryKrJ3B5DXR1OjklTjlf_ETX81ojEkfScXDtg-Q/s500/9781529043907.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Dance of the Seagull is the 15th Montalbano mystery" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lf-DFqbWjPA5h1OGFuBVnC2d-4n04hU0ZMc9m0ghYiNfGOQU--ChvdixQ0egRuhylJ34MHXwzAOTf3qx9vdfG0iu58oZALWqFnVYEma1whPFju0lfu88vzosXXYoN9wjmP1hn7L8MveQP5dG3apryKrJ3B5DXR1OjklTjlf_ETX81ojEkfScXDtg-Q/w211-h320/9781529043907.jpg" title="The Dance of the Seagull is the 15th Montalbano mystery" width="211" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Dance of the Seagull is the <br />15th Montalbano mystery</td></tr></tbody></table>A tip off from a criminal, who says he has seen a badly injured Fazio with two other men in a remote area of the island, leads them to investigate a place where there are dry wells, into which the Mafia sometimes throw the bodies of their victims. Montalbano deploys firemen to search the wells and they find the bodies of two men, but neither of them is Fazio.</p><p>Montalbano has a chilling feeling the Mafia are involved in Fazio’s disappearance and becomes desperate to find the injured officer alive before it is too late. He works night and day on the investigation, hardly stopping to eat or rest.</p><p>He looks into everyone who has tried to contact Fazio through the police switchboard recently and finally begins to piece things together.</p><p>But then his troubles really begin, when he realises that he has left Livia waiting alone at his villa to start their holiday together…</p><p><i>The Dance of the Seagull</i> is a compelling story with an intriguing crime at the heart of it that Montalbano must solve in order to find Fazio before it is too late.</p><p>As always, the novel provides fascinating insights into life in Sicily and moments that make the reader want to laugh out loud, despite the unrelenting suspense.</p><p>Buy <i>The Dance of the Seagull </i>from <a href="https://amzn.to/3SMIuPY" target="_blank">
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</p><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Picture credit: Seagull by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/edgarsax-22901283/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=7101611">Edgar Gonzalez</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=7101611">Pixabay</a>)</span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.italyonthisday.com">Home</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-6851341536763474622023-01-30T17:50:00.001+00:002023-01-30T21:34:01.997+00:00Vengeance in Venice<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A second murder
mystery set in Venice by Philip Gwynne Jones</span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b></b></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivllQh4cD3j3xIDXzc4xn2rc5k7Rgokys4BghvP_be_8erYxhmDtwcluhXZMfPnn4sVeDINX5pNG0lUhZY4OW3u68J9qdbpnQfJr6iLIEJgqsNlIUPLRKU06NcqNh2itL0plyDnZRBP6J-ES4so0QeTDWOtSKunBjgynR7pbeQ1QU0D9q5T3fGJ2mCnA/s663/800px-Ven%C3%A8cia,_Castello_i_jardins_de_la_Biennal%20(2).jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Giardini della Biennale, which hosts the Venice arts festival, is in the Castello district" border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="663" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivllQh4cD3j3xIDXzc4xn2rc5k7Rgokys4BghvP_be_8erYxhmDtwcluhXZMfPnn4sVeDINX5pNG0lUhZY4OW3u68J9qdbpnQfJr6iLIEJgqsNlIUPLRKU06NcqNh2itL0plyDnZRBP6J-ES4so0QeTDWOtSKunBjgynR7pbeQ1QU0D9q5T3fGJ2mCnA/w320-h208/800px-Ven%C3%A8cia,_Castello_i_jardins_de_la_Biennal%20(2).jpg" title="The Giardini della Biennale, which hosts the Venice arts festival, is in the Castello district" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Giardini della Biennale, which hosts the<br />Venice arts festival, is in the Castello district</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Amateur
sleuth Nathan Sutherland shows his compassionate side in <i>Vengeance in Venice</i>
when he feels sorry for an artist who he meets at an exclusive event during the
Venetian Biennale.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He senses Paul
Considine, the artist, is nervous and vulnerable and feels even more sympathetic
when he discovers that he has already received a scathing review from a <i>Times
</i>art critic before the exhibition has even opened to the public. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">That same critic,
Gordon Blake-Hoyt, is present at the reception in the British pavilion in the
<b>Giardini</b> <b>della Biennale</b>, to which Nathan has been invited in his role as honorary British Consul
in Venice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When the
unpleasant GBH, as he is nicknamed, falls from a glass-floored corridor
overlooking the exhibition and is decapitated by a vertical shard of glass that
is part of the artworks on display, Nathan finds himself caught up in a murder
mystery again. A postcard found in the victim’s pocket - of a painting by
<b>Artemesia Gentileschi </b>showing Judith beheading Holofernes - indicates that the
death was not just the result of a tragic accident. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Paul Considine is among the suspects but all Nathan’s
instincts tell him that the artist is not the murderer and he sets out
to try to prove it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJSJwjMGHrFY6pGTHNgyP94InS1XMtHLJQsUpEZwMczGJRMC9-A8Hf8CBXOvOU2h-t6yza0y06dDHrORVLeux9uCGYMTBryMwYjSZCVO_P1l3xAoMMfv4Nne6jpYjS-XceSqzFnCgFPcDxbK4CPvi7SE-i6gkZzYCFCGDrqih9Sju6VD6u0XU3il9zww/s500/9781472124005.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nathan Sutherland returns in Vengeance in Venice" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="321" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJSJwjMGHrFY6pGTHNgyP94InS1XMtHLJQsUpEZwMczGJRMC9-A8Hf8CBXOvOU2h-t6yza0y06dDHrORVLeux9uCGYMTBryMwYjSZCVO_P1l3xAoMMfv4Nne6jpYjS-XceSqzFnCgFPcDxbK4CPvi7SE-i6gkZzYCFCGDrqih9Sju6VD6u0XU3il9zww/w175-h273/9781472124005.jpg" title="Nathan Sutherland returns in Vengeance in Venice" width="175" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nathan Sutherland returns<br />in <i>Vengeance in Venice</i> </td></tr></tbody></table><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In theory, Nathan's
unpaid job as honorary consul should be no more dangerous than helping
British tourists who have lost their passports or become ill during their
holidays, but as happened in <i>The Venetian Game,</i> Nathan can’t resist sleuthing
and putting his own life and that of his friend, Dario, at risk. His paid job, as a freelance translator of diy manuals, clearly doesn’t provide him with
enough excitement.<o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Nathan’s
personal life has moved on since <i>The Venetian Game</i> and his friend, Federica,
the art restorer, is now his partner. His lifestyle has become less chaotic as
a result and he has become more domesticated and is enjoying cooking for two. But
at one point he risks losing Federica by keeping her in the dark about his unofficial
investigation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The story is
well told by <b>Phillip Gwynne Jones</b> against the beautiful backdrop of Venice in
the early summer, as Nathan moves round the city by vaporetto and traghetto,
pausing occasionally for Prosecco and cicchetti and savouring the art and
architecture along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Vengeance in
Venice</i></b> was published by Constable in 2018. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Buy it from <a href="https://amzn.to/3Hc61nW" target="_blank">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-69206060740247684912023-01-16T22:50:00.049+00:002023-01-19T09:02:17.889+00:00The Age of Doubt<h3 style="text-align: left;">An Inspector Montalbano Mystery by Andrea Camilleri</h3><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIXwVl6VaUGjhAJ8Uj50Whk-sm9-_4f-_TmXYOeqvbwUpEO7GiWLfgHKCwtzSjfmf9Pm5FhzLUyqHLtmWPvx01ciy9ehcmPLpyqeVizNdneOgEgk2Uki_ilYw6Vin3jQxmSaYnaRfznk_0OuWkEWbwmDBlSYTh0ZL0OaWqWmQwITBPd2kTwIZU47jblQ/s1920/boats-g3ce14a522_1920.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The mystery in The Age of Doubt begins with the crew of a yacht finding a body in a dinghy" border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIXwVl6VaUGjhAJ8Uj50Whk-sm9-_4f-_TmXYOeqvbwUpEO7GiWLfgHKCwtzSjfmf9Pm5FhzLUyqHLtmWPvx01ciy9ehcmPLpyqeVizNdneOgEgk2Uki_ilYw6Vin3jQxmSaYnaRfznk_0OuWkEWbwmDBlSYTh0ZL0OaWqWmQwITBPd2kTwIZU47jblQ/w320-h213/boats-g3ce14a522_1920.jpg" title="The mystery in The Age of Doubt begins with the crew of a yacht finding a body in a dinghy" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The mystery in <i>The Age of Doubt</i> begins with<br />the crew of a yacht finding a body in a dinghy</td></tr></tbody></table>A chance encounter with a strange young woman who Inspector Montalbano meets on the way to work one morning prompts him to visit the harbour authorities at Vigàta.</b><p></p><p>A yacht called the Vanna that the young woman said belonged to her aunt was due to sail in that afternoon but at the harbour he discovers it has been held up out at sea because of stormy weather.</p><p>Later in the day, a lieutenant from the harbour office gets in touch with Montalbano to tell him that the people on board the Vanna have called ahead to report that they have encountered a dinghy floating in the sea carrying the dead body of a man.</p><p>The crew have taken the dead body, which has a badly disfigured face, on board the yacht and they bring it into the harbour with them. The harbour physician, who Montalbano knows and likes, asks him to come down to look at the body with him. Despite trying to argue that the victim may have died in international waters, Montalbano soon finds himself in charge of a murder investigation.</p><p>The Inspector becomes suspicious of the owner of the yacht, a bad tempered middle aged woman, who denies all knowledge of the supposed niece he had met that morning. However, he later realises he has been conned by the strange young woman.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQKtYTEP6qmWGwTUw1zr0VIRacwltITtXeyTrT4kclVihIDMrAQQ-otlKwFCnprWHF5kbrj6tRemeBHJ5jKYVBMIedV9Iyo4jusi-mPKnk6bhLc20zcLd9sgmdqzTD3NnI_QhSYN3QTbxa227FPOBA4pCo4QalqNHd9rxptpuqS5E6K-VhNKMtOv81zQ/s500/9781529043891.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Camilleri's The Age of Doubt is published by Pan Macmillan" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="330" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQKtYTEP6qmWGwTUw1zr0VIRacwltITtXeyTrT4kclVihIDMrAQQ-otlKwFCnprWHF5kbrj6tRemeBHJ5jKYVBMIedV9Iyo4jusi-mPKnk6bhLc20zcLd9sgmdqzTD3NnI_QhSYN3QTbxa227FPOBA4pCo4QalqNHd9rxptpuqS5E6K-VhNKMtOv81zQ/w169-h257/9781529043891.jpg" title="Camilleri's The Age of Doubt is published by Pan Macmillan" width="169" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camilleri's <i>The Age of Doubt</i> is<br />published by Pan Macmillan </td></tr></tbody></table>Montalbano soon finds himself embroiled in a puzzling mystery and at one stage has to sit down and writes a letter to himself to help him understand the various aspects of the case.<p></p><p>Everything is made even more chaotic by <b>Catarella’s</b> inability to understand people on the phone, but Montalbano continues to show remarkable patience with him.</p><p>He also has to deal with the Commissioner over a problem with paperwork on his desk that got wet during the stormy weather</p><p>Despite his long standing relationship with his girlfriend, <b>Livia,</b> he finds himself becoming dangerously besotted with a beautiful young woman who works at the harbour and he has to risk his own life to help her when events reach their dramatic conclusion.</p><p><i>The Age of Doubt</i> - the 14th in the highly popular series - is a hectic but highly readable Montalbano mystery, laced with plenty of humour, in which as usual Camilleri keeps a few surprises up his sleeve until the end. </p><p>Buy <i>The Age of Doubt</i> from <a href="https://amzn.to/3Xv5K5S" target="_blank">
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I have been an avid reader of <b>Donna Leon’s Brunetti </b>series over the years and Donna Leon is, of course, a famous ex-pat American resident of Venice. Philip Gwynne Jones, who was born in Swansea and grew up in south Wales, is now also lucky enough to be living there, working as a teacher, writer, and translator.</p><p>I’ve been visiting Venice regularly for more than 45 years and think I know the city well, but not in the same way that a local can know and portray it, of course. I enjoyed the author’s descriptions of squares and bridges as his viewpoint character, Nathan Sutherland, makes his way through the <i>calli</i> using routes to get to places that only a local would know, in the same way that Commissario Brunetti moves about in Donna Leon’s novels.</p><p>As a series character, I thought Nathan was very promising. He lives in an apartment on Via dei Assassini, where he makes a living as an English translator of DIY manuals. He also serves as the English Honorary Consul to Venice and does his best to help British tourists who get into difficulty while visiting <i>La Serenissima.</i></p><p>This is an excellent device because it is entirely plausible that Nathan will have regular dealings with the police while trying to sort out people’s problems. It is also likely that he will have developed a friendship with an officer who he can call on for help when he is engaged in sleuthing.</p><p>Nathan is separated from his wife, who we eventually learn has left to take up a job in Scotland. He has an unfriendly cat called Gramsci, named after a former leader of the Italian Communist party, Antonio Gramsci, who stood up to Mussolini and was imprisoned by the Fascists for 20 years. To add further interest, Nathan also has an attractive Italian female friend, Federica, who is an art restorer.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-vSoOO2ltq0cQjOI-Y-7z4i50d8OV5jDNFFx4KIT2tJbbwV8M6b0VWYahiOwL6uR2wT5QBhK27PU_bwRhMe_pWEH7P2NeMOyjaLDID7tOZfGhCHvPuV8rJh9D0k_cEryDnZTIa6ZuKYl6KOkXmJn_lXf2nSw7lBeXS9y7YBv7aNl1m6D1dxtufHp3Aw/s500/9781472123978.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Venetian Game is the first of a series of detective novels" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="320" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-vSoOO2ltq0cQjOI-Y-7z4i50d8OV5jDNFFx4KIT2tJbbwV8M6b0VWYahiOwL6uR2wT5QBhK27PU_bwRhMe_pWEH7P2NeMOyjaLDID7tOZfGhCHvPuV8rJh9D0k_cEryDnZTIa6ZuKYl6KOkXmJn_lXf2nSw7lBeXS9y7YBv7aNl1m6D1dxtufHp3Aw/w205-h320/9781472123978.jpg" title="The Venetian Game is the first of a series of detective novels" width="205" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Venetian Game</i> is the first<br />of a series of detective novels</td></tr></tbody></table>The mystery is set up at the beginning of the novel when a man in his sixties visits Nathan’s apartment and asks him to look after an item in his wall safe that is sealed in a padded envelope. When Nathan tells him that won’t be possible without knowing what the package contains, the man offers to pay him ten thousand euros. When that doesn’t work, he threatens Nathan.<p></p><p>The package turns out to hold a valuable antique prayer book illustrated by an Italian master and Nathan eventually finds he has been drawn into a deadly game of art theft being played by two elderly brothers who live in a palace on the Grand Canal.</p><p>Nathan is terrorised at the top of a high building, beaten up and nearly drowned in a canal, and forced to flee his apartment, taking Gramsci with him, and make his escape by vaporetto, all because of the package.</p><p>I found myself wondering about Nathan at this point. Why doesn’t he take the package to the police and go and stay somewhere else for a while? What makes him want to put his life at risk to solve the mystery? Is it because he’s exceptionally brave, or has an insatiable curiosity, or is determined to see justice done?</p><p><i>The Venetian Game</i> was first published in 2017. As I said earlier, I was a bit late discovering the series. I am looking forward to reading the sequel, <i>Vengeance in Venice, </i>which was published in 2018, to find out exactly what motivates Nathan.</p><p>Buy <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Venetian Game </i>from <a href="https://amzn.to/3jrcyCR" target="_blank">
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The story revolves around the world of opera, which De Giovanni obviously knows and understands well.</p><p><b>Commissario Luigi Alfredo Ricciardi</b>, who is from a noble background, is sent to investigate a sudden death at the theatre. He is a loner and remains aloof from most of the other officers, but has the reputation of being a brilliant detective.</p><p>The big thing the reader has to get his head round is that this enigmatic police officer can see dead people. From being a child, he had been able to see the dead and it has set him apart from everyone else. As the author explains: ‘Not all of them and not for long: only those who had died violently, and only for a period of time that revealed extreme emotion, the sudden energy of their final thoughts.’</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKBIm14ZWeZf_yKSR8GUghPUP_Cm6gGU40uKG-Xe4DsV6GT6MKi5JPm-Zi74nNOkdn_G6CH093lB1ebAnWYu1tb5tjV7hSgWLgWnzEzveEXszvrwHpuByl--DVR7ubTFs8trCZ66XEYDewbV4VUC8qi5rFnczCCeExxLcUHXjACMFZ0wYTk8kg-tA_Q/s246/250px-MaurizioDeGiovanni%20(2).jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Maurizio De Giovanni wrote his first stories while working in a bank" border="0" data-original-height="246" data-original-width="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKBIm14ZWeZf_yKSR8GUghPUP_Cm6gGU40uKG-Xe4DsV6GT6MKi5JPm-Zi74nNOkdn_G6CH093lB1ebAnWYu1tb5tjV7hSgWLgWnzEzveEXszvrwHpuByl--DVR7ubTFs8trCZ66XEYDewbV4VUC8qi5rFnczCCeExxLcUHXjACMFZ0wYTk8kg-tA_Q/s16000/250px-MaurizioDeGiovanni%20(2).jpg" title="Maurizio De Giovanni wrote his first stories while working in a bank" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maurizio De Giovanni wrote his<br />first stories while working in a bank</td></tr></tbody></table>But by the end of the book, I had come to terms with Ricciardi’s special gift, having become more interested in following the story and seeing how he solved the case.<p></p><p>The greatest tenor the world has ever known, Arnaldo Vezzi, has been found dead in his dressing room at Teatro di San Carlo. Ricciardi and his loyal deputy, Maione, are quickly on the scene and immediately clash with the director of the theatre when they insist on setting up a professional police investigation.</p><p>Vezzi was adored by millions, including <i>Il Duce,</i> but is hated by everyone in the theatre and in his personal life because of his arrogance and bad temper. Ricciardi’s boss, the Vice Questore, wants a quick result, even if it is not the right result, but Ricciardi insists on investigating thoroughly in order to bring the actual killer to justice. It is a compelling story and is told brilliantly by De Giovanni.</p><p>The setting of Naples in 1931 is very realistically portrayed because De Giovanni remembers his parents sharing their memories of the city before World War II with him.</p><p>De Giovanni was born in 1958 in Naples. He worked in a bank and wrote stories as a hobby. His colleagues at the bank decided to enter one of his stories in a writing competition for unpublished writers without his knowledge and his short story, <i>I vivi e i morti – The Living and the Dead,</i> set in the 1930s and featuring Commissario Ricciardi, won the competition. This inspired him to write his first novel, <i>Le lacrime del pagliaccio – The Tears of the Clown </i>- which was later republished in English as <i>I Will Have Vengeance – The Winter of Commissario Ricciardi.</i></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh77bIYgSXc1UwQs54DwQ_Dbx6paBcJwbXh1jbkxyUgSIL4sFm7MzMvlAyofNGYr-BYEL2QF2Cm_PZecfrRUKnG93YKudfjl2Fa5vWtKamn06UA8daNTL00r4sSLOCs10uR41crcTRrW9sDJxhwYvDZ60tgy7ajhmIwMQVl4UmWnyWrODSctcj1FLsIWw/s320/Napoli_-_Teatro_San_CarlodaViaSanCarlo%20(2).jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, where much of the action in I Will Have Vengeance takes place" border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh77bIYgSXc1UwQs54DwQ_Dbx6paBcJwbXh1jbkxyUgSIL4sFm7MzMvlAyofNGYr-BYEL2QF2Cm_PZecfrRUKnG93YKudfjl2Fa5vWtKamn06UA8daNTL00r4sSLOCs10uR41crcTRrW9sDJxhwYvDZ60tgy7ajhmIwMQVl4UmWnyWrODSctcj1FLsIWw/w320-h240/Napoli_-_Teatro_San_CarlodaViaSanCarlo%20(2).jpg" title="The Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, where much of the action in I Will Have Vengeance takes place" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, where much of<br />the action in <i>I Will Have Vengeance</i> takes place</td></tr></tbody></table>He followed this with <i>Blood Curse – The Springtime of Commissario Ricciardi </i>in 2008, <i>Everyone in Their Place – The Summer of Commissario Ricciardi </i>in 2009 and <i>The Day of the Dead – The Autumn of Commissario Ricciardi</i> in 2010. To date he has written 13 Commissario Ricciardi novels.<p></p><p>The author has created two fictional detectives, Commissario Ricciardi, who works in 1930s Naples, and Ispettore Lojacono, who has been transferred to present day Naples from his home town of Agrigento in Sicily, after being accused of associating with the Mafia.</p><p>In 2012, De Giovanni ventured into the noir genre with <i>The Crocodile,</i> which featured the first appearance by Ispettore Lojacono.</p><p>He was then inspired by the 87th Precinct series by Ed McBain to write a police procedural, <i>The Bastards of Pizzofalcone.</i> His five Pizzofalcone novels have now been made into a television series by RAI, starring <b>Alessandro Gassmann</b> as Ispettore Lojacono.</p><p>De Giovanni’s novels have now been translated into English, Spanish, Catalan, French and German and have sold well over a million copies throughout Europe.</p><p>Buy <i>I Will Have Vengeance</i> from <a href="https://amzn.to/3JD8qqK" target="_blank">
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An added complication is a series of phone calls Montalbano receives from his long-distance girlfriend, Livia. Mimì’s wife, Beba, is in regular contact with Livia and has been telling her that Montalbano has been treating her husband very badly, requiring him to do regular all night stake outs, which is affecting their marriage.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Knowing there have been no recent all-night stake outs, the Inspector has no idea what is going on, but he allows Livia to believe that what she has been told is true to give him time to find out more about it. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEge_FCJ6yrjSxBQFQUXXrrCiKS_mE0W3SQwYKFwJ1ajZfOeGxCtQdEQNnR2bKYhISEmF34B4YwBdTItX-EAJhRtArdSag8sLpatLZizZEsM5CeDqwn2N9WnL2WTuKc326igpr_0rLrMjszl3lBwxpUlTLwhwaZrIKrXXbu4psBC93DlrI7bxtPxjpnGkg=s500" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Potter's Field is the 13th Montalbano novel" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEge_FCJ6yrjSxBQFQUXXrrCiKS_mE0W3SQwYKFwJ1ajZfOeGxCtQdEQNnR2bKYhISEmF34B4YwBdTItX-EAJhRtArdSag8sLpatLZizZEsM5CeDqwn2N9WnL2WTuKc326igpr_0rLrMjszl3lBwxpUlTLwhwaZrIKrXXbu4psBC93DlrI7bxtPxjpnGkg=w211-h320" title="The Potter's Field is the 13th Montalbano novel" width="211" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Potter's Field</i> is the 13th<br />Montalbano novel</td></tr></tbody></table>He asks his Swedish friend, Ingrid, to follow Mimì to see where he goes at night, guessing he is probably seeing another woman. When Ingrid visits Montalbano’s apartment late at night to report back to him, the Inspector is terrified when the phone rings and it is Livia, who immediately senses someone is there with him.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The murder inquiry becomes more complicated when a beautiful South American woman comes to the police station to report that her husband is missing and Montalbano discovers that the man, a ship’s officer, just happens to be a distant relative of a local Mafia boss.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Discussing Mafia rituals with his officer, Fazio, leads to Montalbano recalling a passage from the Bible. He looks it up in the Gospel according to Matthew and reads the passage recounting the suicide of Judas, where he comes to the phrase ‘...the potter’s field to bury strangers in …’. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Montalbano feels an actual shock go through his body as he finally has a clue about what lay behind the decision to cut the victim up in 30 pieces. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">But this time Montalbano not only has to solve a murder, he has to try to extricate Mimì from the trouble he is in. And he contrives to enable Mimì to take the credit for finding out who is responsible for the murder of the cut up body found in the potter’s field. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">It is a tall order, but Montalbano is cheered up by regularly eating at Enzo’s trattoria, where he consumes in just one of his meals whitebait, octopus, pasta with sea urchins and striped red mullet. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">He also finds the time to play a practical joke on his arch enemy, Pippo Ragonese, the top newsman at <i>TeleVigàta</i>. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Potter’s Field</i> was first published in Italian as <i>Il campo del vasaio </i>in 2008. It was translated into English in 2011 by <b>Stephen Sartarelli</b>. I found it to be as ingenious as it was entertaining and would definitely recommend it.
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">You can buy <i>The Potter's Field</i> from <a href="https://amzn.to/3rpEPvg" target="_blank">
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He is brought to the attention of an Art Theft officer working for the Italian police, Flavia di Stefano, when he is caught breaking into a church in Rome.</p><p>A graduate student on holiday in Italy, Argyll had been arrested for vagrancy when he was found apparently trying to sleep in the church of Santa Barbara in the Campo dei Fiori.</p><p>When Flavia interviews him in English, she discovers that Argyll had gone to the church to examine a painting by Raphael that was hanging above the altar. He insists on making a full statement because he is convinced an enormous fraud has taken place.</p><p>He claims that the church contains a lost classic, hidden under another painting. When the picture vanishes, only to turn up in the hands of a British art dealer who claims it is a newly-discovered work by Raphael, his story gains some credibility.</p><p>Argyll and Flavia di Stefano join forces to find out whether the painting is a lost Raphael or not, but find themselves in danger when they come too close to discovering the truth.</p><p><i></i></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEggwRbxSQ9TsMPRZ9pSriCE78dMdER0snwRXkvDwb9MnYGrtIu-V3YL0Npmr5isOUqa0ylF3dzrQLMgSDQ3sVZ3EgBc-7DLx1_xkbKb1C6YPtpF3hc7Mtr2eh1_YHrgn_2oFHyMuZ9pzeIGbGRCG2Ht-ezvp2b-kG1vqsAaZpz3c5DjinFNNy8ryeRSIg=s287" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Iain Pears has worked in Italy as a journalist" border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="246" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEggwRbxSQ9TsMPRZ9pSriCE78dMdER0snwRXkvDwb9MnYGrtIu-V3YL0Npmr5isOUqa0ylF3dzrQLMgSDQ3sVZ3EgBc-7DLx1_xkbKb1C6YPtpF3hc7Mtr2eh1_YHrgn_2oFHyMuZ9pzeIGbGRCG2Ht-ezvp2b-kG1vqsAaZpz3c5DjinFNNy8ryeRSIg=w197-h230" title="Iain Pears has worked in Italy as a journalist" width="197" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iain Pears has worked in<br />Italy as a journalist</td></tr></tbody></table><i>The Raphael Affair,</i> which was first published in 1990, is a well-plotted story by Pears with sympathetic characters and its fair share of politics, corruption, suspense and sudden death. The outcome is surprising and sets up Argyll nicely to stay in Italy, see more of Flavia and appear in another novel.<p></p><p>Author Iain Pears was born in Coventry and educated at Oxford. He became a reporter for the BBC and then a correspondent for Reuters based in Italy, France and the US.</p><p>Following <i>The Raphael Affair,</i> Pears has published another six art mystery novels featuring art historian Jonathan Argyll. They are: <i>The Titian Committee, The Bernini Bust, The Last Judgment, Giotto’s Hand, Death and Restoration</i> and <i>The Immaculate Deception.</i></p><p>I don’t know why it has taken me so long to read <i>The Raphael Affair,</i> but now I can’t wait to get started on <i>The Titian Committee!</i> </p><p><i>The Raphael Affair</i> is available from <a href="https://amzn.to/3G11fa2" target="_blank">
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When he gets close to it, he is overcome with rage. <i>‘The beast was all bloodied, its head broken open with some sort of iron bar, its whole body bearing the signs of a long, ferocious beating. There were deep, open wounds, pieces of flesh dangling. It was clear that the horse, battered as it was, had managed to escape and run desperately away until it could go no further.'</i></p><p>Montalbano follows the hoofprints to the spot where the horse had been beaten and discovers from the impressions in the sand that four people had been hitting the horse with iron bars, witnessed by two others, who had stood to one side, smoking.</p><p>He calls out his men and sends them to scour the beach for forensic evidence and then rings up City Hall to arrange for the carcass to be taken away. But while he and his men are having coffee in the house, the horse mysteriously vanishes, leaving only a track in the sand.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_JY7PvTev1EAomgHW3gCe_Iw2NaLVeQ3aO0Zo1c8YQ2LvNiOlWpwmNV6e2-_u_bkn3ubzw_CJDIG2Ll7sj2kqwQYkhE9JcfOWggBLqEXpM1MrTEmO9rphYmDOLNjeEfa8sinq22eg3BzE/s499/track+of+sand+cover.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Track of Sand is the 12th of Camilleri's Montalbano novels" border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="329" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_JY7PvTev1EAomgHW3gCe_Iw2NaLVeQ3aO0Zo1c8YQ2LvNiOlWpwmNV6e2-_u_bkn3ubzw_CJDIG2Ll7sj2kqwQYkhE9JcfOWggBLqEXpM1MrTEmO9rphYmDOLNjeEfa8sinq22eg3BzE/w211-h320/track+of+sand+cover.jpg" title="Cover of The Track of Sand by Andrea Camilleri" width="211" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Track of Sand</i> is the 12th of<br />Camilleri's Montalbano novels</td></tr></tbody></table>Before long, <b>Rachele, </b>a glamorous horsewoman, turns up at police headquarters to report her horse missing. It had been stabled in the grounds of one of the richest men in Sicily, who had lost one of his horses as well.<p></p><p>Even though the case really belongs to officers working in another part of the island, Montalbano can’t resist investigating himself and he vows to track down the people responsible for this atrocity.</p><p>But it soon becomes obvious that he has upset someone, as thieves break into his home twice, once to steal a watch and once to put it back.</p><p>Coincidentally, Rachele is staying with Montalbano’s attractive Swedish friend, <b>Ingrid,</b> and the two women ask Montalbano to go with them to a fund-raising dinner, which, of course, he dreads. He knows in advance that the food will be awful and finds he is absolutely right. He returns home late at night looking forward to eating olives and anchovies from the fridge with some hard bread and plenty of wine. But he finds his house has been ransacked while he was out.</p><p>Montalbano and his officers work hard to unravel the mystery, track down the guilty parties and arrest them.</p><p>Then the Inspector races home to set the table on his veranda so he can sit down and enjoy a meal cooked by his housekeeper, Adelina, for himself, Ingrid and Rachele. He intends to savour the food, before explaining everything to them...</p><p>I am sure new readers and seasoned Camilleri fans alike will enjoy this 12th serving of Montalbano’s unorthodox investigative methods, melancholy self-reflection, Sicilian humour and perfectly cooked fish, all beautifully translated by <b>Stephen Sartarelli.</b></p><p><i>The Track of Sand</i> is available from <a href="https://amzn.to/2YS1g0C" target="_blank">
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Inspector De Vincenzi mystery by Augusto De Angelis</span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i></i></b></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10l6tKW1a9yxDzusiSmjMeBd6Z6toKdeUBk7CsvzDEcFRuNwxZZ0yn5oc3YXvwdUqyxrnq_mkcKyo00moxxO5I6U-6tvQLUf2Jh2OBaHOEw-YWiUxo8-nE_nx8hRTzVTiPjx9D50A_Mx7/s633/640px-Milano%252C_corso_Buenos_Ayres_02+%25282%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Augusto De Angelis's mystery The Murdered Banker is set in the Milan of the 1930s" border="0" data-original-height="419" data-original-width="633" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi10l6tKW1a9yxDzusiSmjMeBd6Z6toKdeUBk7CsvzDEcFRuNwxZZ0yn5oc3YXvwdUqyxrnq_mkcKyo00moxxO5I6U-6tvQLUf2Jh2OBaHOEw-YWiUxo8-nE_nx8hRTzVTiPjx9D50A_Mx7/w320-h212/640px-Milano%252C_corso_Buenos_Ayres_02+%25282%2529.jpg" title="Augusto De Angelis's mystery The Murdered Banker is set in the Milan of the 1930s" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Augusto De Angelis's mystery <i>The Murdered<br />Banker</i> is set in the Milan of the 1930s<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>The Murdered
Banker</i> is a highly significant novel in the history of Italian crime fiction as
it is the first detective story written by Augusto De Angelis, who is regarded
by many as the father of the genre in Italy.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">First
published in 1935 in Italian as <i>Il banchiere assassinato</i>, the novel
appeared at the peak of the British Golden Age of detective fiction, six years
after Italian publishers <b>Mondadori</b> had launched their crime series in yellow (<i>giallo</i>) covers that would later result in the word <i>gialli </i>being used to refer to
mystery novels and films.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There were
no Italian authors on the first Mondadori list as the publishers did
not see Italy as the right setting for the crime genre at that time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, journalist
<b>De Angelis</b> did not agree, as he thought crime fiction was a natural result and
product of the fraught and violent times he was living in and writing about.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">To begin
with, <b>Mussolini</b> and his associates approved of the crime fiction genre because
it celebrated the achievements of the forces of order over evil and chaos by
bringing about just solutions and restoring tranquillity. However, they eventually
became wary of Italy being seen to be anything less than idyllic by the outside
world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i></i></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgf0aJzkrfjmDyJWIYokUECCIOIborh5KAxXY8QIZxUa-JpaLKZJ9D-sfiRAlG0Y6nTAXSvm4uXgtKvbHFHfvMELv7dhTURspjHZ40Z2N7IZceN9tY0mpUYmnS7iCk7ZkQZoUgjdDgHgz/s499/murdered+banker.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Pushkin Vertigo edition of The Murdered Banker" border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="325" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgf0aJzkrfjmDyJWIYokUECCIOIborh5KAxXY8QIZxUa-JpaLKZJ9D-sfiRAlG0Y6nTAXSvm4uXgtKvbHFHfvMELv7dhTURspjHZ40Z2N7IZceN9tY0mpUYmnS7iCk7ZkQZoUgjdDgHgz/w208-h320/murdered+banker.jpg" title="The Pushkin Vertigo edition of The Murdered Banker" width="208" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Pushkin Vertigo edition<br />of <i>The Murdered Banker</i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>The Murdered
Banker</i> was the first of 20 novels by De Angelis featuring <b>Inspector De Vincenzi</b>,
which he produced over just eight years. De Angelis had a unique style and created a
detective who could not have been more different from the eccentric and clever
Sherlock Holmes and the methodical little Belgian, Hercule Poirot.<o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">De Angelis
is therefore seen as the father of Italian crime fiction. It is interesting to
see how many of the traits of his protagonist have appeared in fictional
Italian detectives since. De Vincenzi’s loyalty to his friends and care for his
subordinates made me think of <b>Donna Leon</b>’s Brunetti. His disregard for the
rules, unorthodox<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>behaviour and moments
of inspiration also made me think of <b>Michael Dibdin</b>’s Zen and <b>Andrea Camilleri</b>’s Montalbano.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The story
starts on a foggy night in <b>Milan</b>, when De Vincenzi is on the night shift and is
visited at his police station by an old schoolfriend, Giannetto Aurigi. While
he is talking to his friend, who is clearly worried about something, he
receives a call about a body being discovered in a house nearby and when he is
given the address is horrified to discover it is in his friend’s apartment. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He goes on
to discover that Aurigi owes a lot of money, which was due to be repaid that
night, and that the dead body is that of the banker who lent it to him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">De Vincenzi feels he doesn’t just have to solve the crime, he has to prove his old friend is
innocent of it and he has to do it quickly before the investigating magistrate becomes
involved. He tells his friend that he has to tell him everything, or he could
soon be facing the firing squad, but Aurigi just keeps repeating that he
doesn’t know anything.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6FxdgSMOU1YrZyIANdg1Jj78ZQriWvqiQ-iqHnKnxJAl2f_mKRjo_Mc3A7es6a9jrQaXt3y2FRYBmxRH8dUPTy4U1qIcs0hHip3I1DvCu8DCM-RtB5h6wHgYuqFSHMKPccz1lS34lFsxH/s500/augusto-de-angelis-biografia+%25282%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="De Angelis wrote 20 Inspector De Vincenzi novels in just eight years" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="426" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6FxdgSMOU1YrZyIANdg1Jj78ZQriWvqiQ-iqHnKnxJAl2f_mKRjo_Mc3A7es6a9jrQaXt3y2FRYBmxRH8dUPTy4U1qIcs0hHip3I1DvCu8DCM-RtB5h6wHgYuqFSHMKPccz1lS34lFsxH/w237-h278/augusto-de-angelis-biografia+%25282%2529.jpg" title="De Angelis wrote 20 Inspector De Vincenzi novels in just eight years" width="237" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">De Angelis wrote 20 Inspector De <br />Vincenzi novels in just eight years</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Fortunately,
there are plenty of other suspects, such as Aurigi’s beautiful fiancée, his
future father-in-law, Count Marchionni, and the mysterious tenant living in the
apartment above. De Vincenzi is determined to get to the truth and he lays a
clever trap for the murderer.</span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Having
visited Milan on many occasions, it was fascinating to read a novel set in the
city in the 1930s, when gentlemen wore evening dress when they were out at
night and treated La Scala almost like a club, where people in society could visit
each other in their boxes during the opera.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The cultured
and often emotional detective De Vincenzi became very popular with Italians, but the Fascist government considered his
creator to be their enemy. De Angelis was arrested and imprisoned in 1943
accused of being anti-Fascist. He was released after three months, but was soon
tracked down by a Fascist activist who beat him up so badly, the writer died of
his wounds in 1944.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">An English
translation of <i>The Murdered Banker</i> by Jill Foulston was published by Pushkin Vertigo in 2016. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;">Buy from <a href="https://amzn.to/3mguCz7" target="_blank">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b></b></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3QdwnNv7Ip7_JRCkSA-dp6BvVCHqrcNaHxMKFSFGVpRzLLTEGX4oJG54L-fAZC9HsTo302KDBv41TwF9v0_EDOJ9lylebxXkdNTf6a3G64QtHRmSgnzyjEdMlZ_RBGfl8kA38EtXPC1i9/s1920/beach-972677_1920.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Mario Giordano's mystery begins with a body on a Sicilian beach" border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1920" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3QdwnNv7Ip7_JRCkSA-dp6BvVCHqrcNaHxMKFSFGVpRzLLTEGX4oJG54L-fAZC9HsTo302KDBv41TwF9v0_EDOJ9lylebxXkdNTf6a3G64QtHRmSgnzyjEdMlZ_RBGfl8kA38EtXPC1i9/w320-h240/beach-972677_1920.jpg" title="Mario Giordano's mystery begins with a body on a Sicilian beach" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mario Giordano's mystery begins with a<br />body on a Sicilian beach</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Auntie
Poldi, a larger-than-life character and amateur sleuth, takes centre stage in
this debut crime novel by German writer Mario Giordano.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Recently
widowed, Poldi leaves her native Munich for Sicily where she has every
intention of drinking herself comfortably to death in front of a sea view.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But fate
intervenes when Poldi finds the body of her odd job man, Valentino, lying on
the beach with his face blown away. She promises him there and then that she
will find his killer and avenge his death and sets out to investigate, making
some new friends, but also some enemies, along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Sicily and
the Sicilians provide a colourful backdrop for the novel and there is plenty of
discussion about the island’s culinary specialities, such as who cooks the best
<i>pasta al nero di sepia </i>and <i>canoli alla crema di ricotta</i>, and where to find the
best oyster mushrooms and marzipan fruits.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkgA70NSAWqz5a9WISCEnGLOScG9yjwunmRWx2LtXs7IEQpQxa_zVjQESEaCRw0MTmkfKzpmBDtaOBkAi60tzlAQr0GTlO8rJrU75rIS8gJhTfzs6eYlkdcOq4nxRfFmtsNpp3cm5kRGGl/s499/517t62Gh15L._SX324_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="326" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkgA70NSAWqz5a9WISCEnGLOScG9yjwunmRWx2LtXs7IEQpQxa_zVjQESEaCRw0MTmkfKzpmBDtaOBkAi60tzlAQr0GTlO8rJrU75rIS8gJhTfzs6eYlkdcOq4nxRfFmtsNpp3cm5kRGGl/s320/517t62Gh15L._SX324_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" /></a></span></span></div><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Poldi also
finds romance with the handsome<b> Commissario Montana,</b> with whom she forms an
uneasy investigative partnership. She puts her own life in danger in order to
find Valentino’s killer, spurred on by the extra incentive of wanting to solve
the case before Montana.<o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Auntie Poldi
and the Sicilian Lions</i></b> is the first crime novel by the novelist and screenplay
writer Mario Giordano. Born in Munich in 1963, <b>Giordano</b> studied psychology at
the University of Dusseldorf and now lives in Cologne. The very readable
English translation of the novel is by John Brownjohn.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Auntie Poldi
and the Sicilian Lions</i></b> was first published in the UK in 2016 by Bitter Lemon
Press and is the first of a crime series featuring the same character.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Buy from <a href="https://amzn.to/3yq9PMq" target="_blank">
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</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">(Picture credit: Sicily photo by </span><a href="https://pixabay.com/it/users/papshmouth-1482158/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=972677" style="font-size: small;">papshmouth</a><span style="font-size: small;"> via </span><a href="https://pixabay.com/it/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=972677" style="font-size: small;">Pixabay</a><span style="font-size: small;">)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.crimesceneitaly.com">Home</a></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-45187859080341991262021-06-03T12:03:00.011+01:002021-06-04T11:25:08.558+01:00A Party in San Niccolò<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A tale of
dark deeds carried out against a backdrop of incredible beauty</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: arial;">Authors are
praised by reviewers and readers if they describe the locations of their novels
well, especially if they have chosen a famous city that is familiar to many
people.</b></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">I have enjoyed
many good novels set in <b>Florence</b>, but I don’t think I have ever appreciated the
way an author has portrayed the city quite as much as I did while reading <b><i>A Party
in </i></b></span><i><b><span style="line-height: 107%;">San <a name="_Hlk73612118">Niccol</a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">ò</span></b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><b>.</b></span></i></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMIguJMgSWb4zgzrDkIYOb-rmLZUI1JtSgty5LHajeO0zpo-F4Odi84DNw9tDju9aprhdCj_ltZb9QFtfvPdeaWvExuKHyp5-Nk93EA7hu0mi228oIY5aVXYs1BOM3Ih6srOWqNx4uM0rw/s640/APISN+csi.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A Party in San Niccolò is a crime novel set in Florence" border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMIguJMgSWb4zgzrDkIYOb-rmLZUI1JtSgty5LHajeO0zpo-F4Odi84DNw9tDju9aprhdCj_ltZb9QFtfvPdeaWvExuKHyp5-Nk93EA7hu0mi228oIY5aVXYs1BOM3Ih6srOWqNx4uM0rw/w240-h320/APISN+csi.jpg" title="A Party in San Niccolò is a crime novel set in Florence" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A Party in San Niccolò</i> is a<br />crime novel set in Florence</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Christobel
Kent</b> brings Florence to life in the novel and she reawakened many of my own memories
of the city, reminding me that I also once went for an afternoon snack at <b>Procacci</b> in the <b>Via de’ Tornabuoni </b>and of the time when I first saw the <b>Boboli</b> gardens.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">In <i>A Party
in San </i></span><i><span style="line-height: 107%;">Niccol</span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">ò,</span></i><span style="line-height: 107%;"> a young
English woman, Gina, visits Florence for the first time and we see the city through
her eyes. She is going to stay with an old friend, Jane, needing a rest from
the demands of her husband and three young children.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">Jane’s
marriage to a handsome Italian architect, </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Niccol</span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">ò, turns out not
to be </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">as perfect as it
first seems and Gina also finds herself becoming involved in the problems of <a name="_Hlk73612879">one of </a></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk73612879;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">Niccol</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk73612879;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">ò</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">’s</span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> daughters,
Beatrice, who comes home in a state of shock after learning that her best
friend has been found dead.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">When Gina
goes to </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Niccol</span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">ò</span><span style="line-height: 107%;">’s country villa
for a few days, she makes an unpleasant discovery and soon finds herself in the
midst of a murder investigation in the Tuscan countryside. She is helped by an
English friend of the family, Frank, and although she is happily married, Gina
finds herself drawn to him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Throughout
the whole novel we are told about a party due to happen at the end of the week
to celebrate the birthday of Frances, one of the British expats in Florence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As Gina and
Frank uncover more evidence about the murder of Beatrice’s friend, the night of
the party draws closer. Matters come to a head in a dazzling denouement as the
characters meet up at the party, held in a beautiful garden in Florence that is
evocatively described by Christobel Kent.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="line-height: 107%;">A Party in
San </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Niccol</span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;">ò</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 107%;">was Christobel Kent’s debut novel and
was first published in 2003.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Buy from <a href="https://amzn.to/3fM4fgO" target="_blank">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-52394580699072829242021-04-10T19:40:00.001+01:002021-04-10T23:02:06.307+01:00A Death in Tuscany<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;">A Chief Superintendent Michele
Ferrara novel by Michele Giuttari</span></h3><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjwHyDMwnOqkUo2eAg7YiqKOitF8sIGcTGQLXlxejGwa2Ge2iLrOWBjHgrtj1Rqd8vXNLVxm0FQsC12oip-2txR5BtmU9wZh_4_oO4P7od5x8tcwSUV3RFxrH4Owmr_QvwRbU5Um5UFpj/s1920/florence-2834701_1920.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Giuttari's novels are set in the historic and atmospheric city of Florence" border="0" data-original-height="1196" data-original-width="1920" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjwHyDMwnOqkUo2eAg7YiqKOitF8sIGcTGQLXlxejGwa2Ge2iLrOWBjHgrtj1Rqd8vXNLVxm0FQsC12oip-2txR5BtmU9wZh_4_oO4P7od5x8tcwSUV3RFxrH4Owmr_QvwRbU5Um5UFpj/w320-h199/florence-2834701_1920.jpg" title="Giuttari's novels are set in the historic and atmospheric city of Florence" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Giuttari's novels are set in the historic and<br />atmospheric city of Florence<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>One thing you can rely on in a
Michele Giuttari novel is that Italian police procedure will be accurately
described. It is particularly fascinating for readers who enjoy crime novels
set in Italy to see behind the scenes of an Italian police station and be on
the inside of a major police investigation.</b></span></div><div style="background: white; border-bottom: solid #F1F1F5 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Michele Giuttari is well qualified to
describe the way the <b>Squadra Mobile</b> (Flying Squad) unit of the Florence police
operates as he once headed the unit himself when he was a serving officer in
the<b> Polizia di Stato.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This is the second novel in his
series featuring <b>Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara</b> and the reader finds out
more about the man behind the job title and his earlier life in Sicily as the
case he is working on involves one of his oldest and dearest friends.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The novel begins with a young girl
found unconscious and scantily dressed in remote countryside in the hills above
Florence. She later dies in hospital and the cause of her death is put down to
a drugs overdose. The hospital staff and some of the police assume she was a
drug addict and probably a prostitute.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLPNcXfJJ8Vd-OYdXvBySQi5duRN8r_uyv8qC6T9eZYyDFHoCR5OZI1TF5Rx3ri82H3Fuvjdm6L3Xc_p80tn9l6fM3ch4zoFnMUgTqdyJPQGNq-a7q6ZYDvhD43IOtcY7ktLTRENGco2r8/s900/unnamed.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Michele Giuttari writes with authority as a former serving police officer" border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLPNcXfJJ8Vd-OYdXvBySQi5duRN8r_uyv8qC6T9eZYyDFHoCR5OZI1TF5Rx3ri82H3Fuvjdm6L3Xc_p80tn9l6fM3ch4zoFnMUgTqdyJPQGNq-a7q6ZYDvhD43IOtcY7ktLTRENGco2r8/w320-h320/unnamed.jpg" title="Michele Giuttari writes with authority as a former serving police officer" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michele Giuttari writes with authority as<br />a former serving police officer</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But Chief Superintendent Ferrara is
not so sure. For one thing the girl is very young, possibly between 13 and 15
years old. There is nothing on her body to identify her and no one has reported
her missing.<o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Ferrara digs deeper and embarks on an
investigation that soon throws up connections with some of the richest and most
powerful people in Florence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In the meantime, his old friend from
Sicily, bookshop owner <b>Massimo Verga</b>, goes missing while staying on the Tuscan
coast.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Ferrara and his wife, <b>Petra</b>, are
extremely worried about the disappearance of Massimo and therefore Ferrara
hands over the inquiry into the death of the unidentified girl to one of his
colleagues so that he can try to find his friend.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The <b>Carabinieri</b> are handling the case
and are working on the theory that his friend, Massimo, has absconded with his
lover, a rich, beautiful businesswoman, after they have killed her ex-husband.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi58WBF-k_wEs1CMso68ep55I2QYOOxoS2g_3iBArrYXLHYi10dmfld9Gef6NgzwAKpt9h6Od-D0VLluKp99mcy-pJlNZH6MMd9ZqsuZhmuwE9lfWgRm-sdFqk8Dd_1rW5itmLxC8b_9ir4/s500/death+in+tuscany.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="312" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi58WBF-k_wEs1CMso68ep55I2QYOOxoS2g_3iBArrYXLHYi10dmfld9Gef6NgzwAKpt9h6Od-D0VLluKp99mcy-pJlNZH6MMd9ZqsuZhmuwE9lfWgRm-sdFqk8Dd_1rW5itmLxC8b_9ir4/s320/death+in+tuscany.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">They resent Ferrara’s interference
and put in a complaint about him, which results in his suspension from duty.
But he is not content to leave the case to the Carabinieri and continues to
investigate unofficially, with the help of his loyal team of officers and his
good friend, Deputy Prosecutor Anna Giulietti.<o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It is a race against time to find
Massimo before anything happens to him and also to prove he is innocent of the
murder.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But Ferrara finds he is up against
the Mafia and a gang of ruthless Albanian drugs bosses, as well as his own Commissioner, who is
enraged both by his unorthodox behaviour and because he has fallen foul of the
Carabinieri.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A Death in Tuscany is well plotted
and gripping, with the solution to the crimes coming right at the end. The
underlying themes of friendship and loyalty are neatly interwoven with the
action.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Buy from <a href="https://amzn.to/320Id26" target="_blank">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .5pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">(Image of Florence by </span><a href="https://pixabay.com/users/sopwithxiii1918-6670486/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2834701" style="background-color: transparent;">Mark Gilder</a><span style="background-color: transparent;"> from </span><a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2834701" style="background-color: transparent;">Pixabay</a>)</span></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-37337914324630757492021-03-09T21:24:00.004+00:002021-03-09T22:17:01.386+00:00The Haunted Hotel<h3 style="text-align: left;">A novel set in Venice by celebrated 19th century author Wilkie Collins</h3><p><b></b></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_JVCOn6Oy_PGHubmvarei1tavRTznsi0llZ4WIec2K81f-5DlWnybQNp76IWiC7sj8EVvgeZqgx_XAd6n-fOY08_ugLTWIwyKwi5hBfYpsSP69x56bVjZBR7XPERCidpK5G6UKDttwgjq/s715/Esterno_Caffe_Florian.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The historic Caffè Florian on St Mark's Square features in The Haunted Hotel" border="0" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="715" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_JVCOn6Oy_PGHubmvarei1tavRTznsi0llZ4WIec2K81f-5DlWnybQNp76IWiC7sj8EVvgeZqgx_XAd6n-fOY08_ugLTWIwyKwi5hBfYpsSP69x56bVjZBR7XPERCidpK5G6UKDttwgjq/w320-h303/Esterno_Caffe_Florian.jpg" title="The historic Caffè Florian on St Mark's Square features in The Haunted Hotel" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The historic Caffè Florian on St Mark's Square<br />features in <i>The Haunted Hotel</i></td></tr></tbody></table><b>Wilkie Collins was an English author known for writing sensation novels, or sensation fiction, which was at the peak of its popularity in the 1860s and 1870s. His 1860 novel, <i>The Woman in White,</i> which has been adapted for numerous theatre, film and television productions, is one of the finest examples of sensation fiction, so called because it was written to play on the nerves and excite the senses of the reader.</b><p></p><p>However, his 1868 novel, <i>The Moonstone,</i> has been talked of as the first English detective novel as it established many of the ground rules of the genre. There is a detective, Sergeant Cuff, a country house setting, false suspects and a final twist in the plot.</p><p>So when I received a copy of The Haunted Hotel as a present recently I wondered how closely it would resemble a detective story, which is my favourite genre. I was also intrigued because a lot of the story takes place in Venice, a city that I love. Collins wrote <i>The Haunted Hotel</i> in 1878, ten years after <i>The Moonstone </i>was published.</p><p>Collins lived in Italy for nearly two years with his family when he was in his early teens. He also toured Italy with his friend, the novelist Charles Dickens, in 1853 and he returned to Italy with different friends for several visits during the 1860s and 1870s.</p><p>In <i>The Haunted Hotel,</i> the reader might think that the novel will deal with the supernatural, as very early in the book questions are raised about being able to predict the future and about sensing evil in a room.</p><p>The story begins with a London doctor being visited by a foreign Countess who is desperate for him to tell her whether she is evil, or insane. She is about to marry a nobleman, Lord Montbarry, but has discovered he was engaged to another woman when he proposed to her. However, the lady has subsequently released him from the engagement.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjojz2A6mmLWdd7TbtrIB2gmpABxnO82vy-7ARCt-QSqVpfJPLrG2RhB3qoiaDvvEr2L4fv8M0s9nfjbXKOPjVJNBUVCd1Exi5lDmB20q-6c5DlhgPxHqC5DMTxQzxdjssC-jT7B4zlQgAR/s1179/Picture_of_Wilkie_Collins.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Wilkie Collins was a contemporary and friend of Charles Dickens" border="0" data-original-height="1179" data-original-width="775" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjojz2A6mmLWdd7TbtrIB2gmpABxnO82vy-7ARCt-QSqVpfJPLrG2RhB3qoiaDvvEr2L4fv8M0s9nfjbXKOPjVJNBUVCd1Exi5lDmB20q-6c5DlhgPxHqC5DMTxQzxdjssC-jT7B4zlQgAR/w210-h320/Picture_of_Wilkie_Collins.jpg" title="Wilkie Collins was a contemporary and friend of Charles Dickens" width="210" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wilkie Collins was a contemporary<br />and friend of Charles Dickens </td></tr></tbody></table>The Countess says she has been assured the other woman did not blame her for the broken engagement as the true course of events had been explained to her. But she says that when she eventually met Lord Montbarry’s former fiancée and was aware of the other woman’s eyes upon her, she turned ‘cold from head to foot’ and experienced great fear.<p></p><p>After the marriage has taken place and the couple have gone away on their honeymoon, the story is told from the point of view of the jilted woman, Agnes. She is perceived by all her friends to be a good, kind and loving person, in contrast with the descriptions of the sinister Countess, with her strange behaviour and white face and extremely dark eyes.</p><p>Mrs Ferrari, a woman Agnes has known since childhood, comes to ask her for help. She is married to an Italian courier who desperately needs work. She asks Agnes to recommend her husband to a newly-married couple who are about to tour Italy. When Agnes discovers the couple are Lord and Lady Montbarry, she is reluctant to intervene, but out of sympathy for the woman she eventually agrees that the courier can mention her name to help him secure the job.</p><p>Mr Ferrari accompanies the newlyweds to Italy while Agnes goes to stay with friends in Ireland.</p><p>On her return to London she receives news from Mrs Ferrari that the courier’s letters have stopped coming and no one has seen or heard of him for weeks.</p><p>Then Mrs Ferrari receives a bizarre letter. It contains a £1000 note and a piece of paper with the words: ‘To console you for the loss of your husband.’</p><p>A few days later, Lord Montbarry’s brother, Henry Westwick, calls to see Agnes to break the news to her that Lord Montbarry has died of bronchitis in the Venetian palazzo where he had been staying.</p><p>Collins makes it seem inevitable that all the protagonists will meet again in Venice in the future. The palace where Lord Montbarry died is converted into a hotel and his brother, Henry, buys shares in it.</p><p>Later, friends of Agnes invite her on a trip to Italy with them and they plan to visit Venice.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB6QjZWXMaTDNh17-cZ4JobcQxtorX3nJ1AXOABKyS6GC8NWkw-BWrxIfV4tzf0HPVCwJ1v3q1OWC0lsZd7PUk5ZLmVt2sX31myATBW_tQSCNvcxWnNIeJiJiAL13KkM_qxDSY1CU_YEmT/s2048/haunted+hotel+cover+%25282%2529.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A recent edition of The Haunted Hotel by Collins Vintage" border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1267" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB6QjZWXMaTDNh17-cZ4JobcQxtorX3nJ1AXOABKyS6GC8NWkw-BWrxIfV4tzf0HPVCwJ1v3q1OWC0lsZd7PUk5ZLmVt2sX31myATBW_tQSCNvcxWnNIeJiJiAL13KkM_qxDSY1CU_YEmT/w226-h365/haunted+hotel+cover+%25282%2529.jpg" title="A recent edition of The Haunted Hotel by Collins Vintage" width="226" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A recent edition of <i>The Haunted<br />Hotel</i> by Collins Vintage </td></tr></tbody></table>Henry and his sister and brother all visit the newly-converted hotel that he has invested in on separate occasions. They all feel ill after staying in the best room, number 14, where they smell a foul odour. It turns out to be the room where Lord Montbarry died.<p></p><p>Events conspire to have Agnes allocated to that room when she arrives at the hotel with her party. The sinister Countess, who also happens to have returned to Venice, is staying at the Hotel Danieli on the Riva Schiavoni, but when she discovers that Agnes is staying at the newly converted palace she moves into the hotel herself.</p><p>Agnes then endures a night of horror in the room where Lord Montbarry died. At this point, I was still wondering if this is a ghost story, or a crime novel.</p><p>There is no detective in the novel, but Lord Montbarry’s brother, Henry Westwick, sets out to discover what has taken place. He visits the room above number 14 and makes a grisly discovery. This is the room in the old palace that had been occupied by Baron Rivar, the brother of the Countess, who enjoyed making chemical experiments.</p><p>The sinister Countess is then found dead, having suffered a ruptured blood vessel in the brain. She leaves an unfinished play that provides Henry with clues to the fate of the missing Italian courier.</p><p>My conclusion is that Wilkie Collins did write a crime story after all. There was the sudden death of Lord Montbarry, whose life was insured for £10,000 pounds in favour of his widow, the sinister Countess. The insurance company investigates the death but can find nothing to suggest it was not natural causes. The Italian courier disappears mysteriously. The amateur detective, Henry Westwick, uncovers the secret of the room above number 14 and, using the unfinished play written by the Countess, finally discovers what happened to his brother.</p><p>A good half of the book takes place in Venice, which is sensitively evoked by Collins, which means it can also be described as a crime novel set in Italy - and almost certainly one of the earliest written.</p><p>We know Collins was in Italy with friends in the 1860s and 1870s and may have stayed in Venice in a hotel converted from an old palazzo. Many Victorians visited Venice expecting to see the beauty and the mystery that Lord Byron had described in his letters and poetry 50 years before.</p><p>In one scene a character leaves the hotel ‘by the lanes that led to the square of St Mark’. Revived by the night breeze he walked into the square avoiding the crowds under the colonnades. He ‘walked slowly up and down the noble open space of the square, bathed in the light of the rising moon.’ He is accosted by the sinister Countess, dressed all in black, who demands that he take her for a drink into Caffè Florian on the right side of the square as you look in the direction of St Mark’s.</p><p>The coffee house opened in 1720 and continued to serve coffee and fine wines during the fall of the Republic of Venice and the periods of French and then Austrian rule. It was the only meeting place that admitted women, which is why Casanova used it as a hunting ground for female company.</p><p>When Collins visited Venice, the décor of Caffè Florian would have been very similar to how it looks today and readers who have been there on visits to Venice will be able to imagine the scene that takes place in the cafe.</p><p><i>The Haunted Hotel</i> has many of the ingredients of a crime novel and the truth is not revealed until the end of the novel in the tradition of the genre. I can definitely recommend the book to crime fiction fans and particularly to people who love mystery novels set in Italy.</p><p><i>The Haunted Hotel</i> is available from<a href="https://amzn.to/3l15AkH" target="_blank"><input b90bb="" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor=" onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor=" style="background-color: #1b90bb; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-left-width: 1px; border-radius: 5px; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: 1px; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px; margin: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding: 8px;" this.style.bordercolor="#d5d5d5" this.style.color="#FFFFFF" type="button" value="Amazon" /></a>and<a href="https://tidd.ly/3ruF2L7" target="_blank"><input b90bb="" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor=" onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor=" style="background-color: #1b90bb; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-left-width: 1px; border-radius: 5px; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: 1px; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px; margin: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding: 8px;" this.style.bordercolor="#d5d5d5" this.style.color="#FFFFFF" type="button" value="Waterstones" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.crimesceneitaly.com">Home</a></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-85504743227023689192021-02-27T19:33:00.008+00:002021-03-02T11:35:14.176+00:00Wilful Behaviour<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A
Commissario Brunetti mystery by Donna Leon</span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b></b></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiShl0KIql7C67JMIanXjJ9oZKeFWpbi2tiLw2dY4yjDn6JiSWAG7I593s7F5_GQ9jG7u-YG3ojvJdW60-sR-FqctLtCWXD-ici7wf00mjEa0sM9LV0M_j1x8g2AbBSE8UPxpVdPtFQS5Y1/s2048/questura+5.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Donna Leon's detective Guido Brunetti operates from a canalside Questura similar to this one" border="0" data-original-height="1364" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiShl0KIql7C67JMIanXjJ9oZKeFWpbi2tiLw2dY4yjDn6JiSWAG7I593s7F5_GQ9jG7u-YG3ojvJdW60-sR-FqctLtCWXD-ici7wf00mjEa0sM9LV0M_j1x8g2AbBSE8UPxpVdPtFQS5Y1/w320-h213/questura+5.jpg" title="Donna Leon's detective Guido Brunetti operates from a canalside Questura similar to this one" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Donna Leon's detective Guido Brunetti operates<br />from a canalside <i>Questura</i> similar to this one</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Everyone
seems to agree that Claudia Leonardo was a model student and a nice, polite
young woman.</b></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Her
landlady, her flatmate and her tutor at the University of Venice all speak
highly of her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">So why
would someone visit her apartment one day and stab her to death?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Guido
Brunetti</b>, a Commissario of the <b>Polizia di Stato</b> in Venice, is determined to
find the answer because he does not believe such a frenzied attack was the result of her having surprised a burglar.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">His wife, Paola, was Claudia’s tutor and he had also recently met
the young woman himself. Claudia had been to see him at the <b>Questura</b> to ask if
it was possible to obtain a posthumous pardon for crimes committed by her
grandfather.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Brunetti’s
investigation causes him to look into events in Venice during World War II when
citizens were desperate to sell their most valuable possessions in order to
flee the city before the Germans arrived.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The
Commissario visits Claudia’s grandfather’s former partner, a sick old lady
living in a modest apartment apparently in poverty, despite the fact that her
walls are covered with original art works that he estimates would be worth
millions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUwOvqwv1bqmJIb0rFo-O2Uq3ClJFT4AkKiBXENBG_1Swjv7Eyq5g6ljppHMeTyKKMN06Cl9b5jQHt9E1cRWTuqEiO3bf-kxu6bsFzI__k73EYXSujl4wYh1ceFSkFrTLhQHZr3CEvv6W/s576/wilful+behaviour.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="422" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCUwOvqwv1bqmJIb0rFo-O2Uq3ClJFT4AkKiBXENBG_1Swjv7Eyq5g6ljppHMeTyKKMN06Cl9b5jQHt9E1cRWTuqEiO3bf-kxu6bsFzI__k73EYXSujl4wYh1ceFSkFrTLhQHZr3CEvv6W/s320/wilful+behaviour.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wilful Behaviour is the 11th book<br />in Leon's Brunetti series</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial;">With
technological assistance from his friend </span><b style="font-family: arial;">Signorina Elettra</b><span style="font-family: arial;">, the secretary to
the Vice Questore, he is able to look into the financial affairs of the murder
victim and discover Claudia regularly received large sums of money that she
then gave away to charities.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The
reader is able to accompany Brunetti as he walks from one end of Venice to the
other in search of information and can admire the architecture and the views
from the bridges over the canals with him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And each time he returns to his own apartment near <b>San Polo</b> the reader can almost smell the
<i>risotto with zucca</i>, the<i> seabass with artichokes</i> and the<i> rabbit with walnuts and
olives</i> being cooked for him by Paola.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">As the
story develops it becomes more and more compelling reading as Brunetti uncovers
layers of corruption to at last reveal the present day evil that led to
Claudia’s murder.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Wilful
Behaviour </i>by Donna Leon won the<b> CWA Macallan Silver Dagger.</b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.crimesceneitaly.com">Home</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-21286136655775204452021-01-31T15:04:00.004+00:002021-02-05T16:22:45.375+00:00Medusa<p> </p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;">An Aurelio Zen Mystery by Michael
Dibdin</span></h3><div style="background: white; border-bottom: solid #F1F1F5 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><b>Once again Detective Aurelio Zen
finds himself with an awkward case to investigate that could have serious
political implications.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi95-Y7Nc1gY-YleP7aPNSXLQ2bhqK_ampoAKlvYXeSo66yXcNcE43h3rK-0ak6cKwAJxLJqX1-Xjlv29T1dPD0ldbbh70qjNNuM74Fdn3YnDxEfFqWQTQJ53DUhng0cB1J8p77KL2eijoI/s1920/lake-lugano-2705012_1920.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Lake Lugano is one of the locations to which Zen's inquiries lead in Medusa" border="0" data-original-height="1276" data-original-width="1920" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi95-Y7Nc1gY-YleP7aPNSXLQ2bhqK_ampoAKlvYXeSo66yXcNcE43h3rK-0ak6cKwAJxLJqX1-Xjlv29T1dPD0ldbbh70qjNNuM74Fdn3YnDxEfFqWQTQJ53DUhng0cB1J8p77KL2eijoI/w320-h213/lake-lugano-2705012_1920.jpg" title="Lake Lugano is one of the locations to which Zen's inquiries lead in Medusa" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lake Lugano is one of the locations to which<br />Zen's inquiries lead in <i>Medusa</i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Austrian cavers exploring abandoned
military tunnels in the Italian alps have discovered the body of a man at the
bottom of a deep shaft.<o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Zen is asked to look into the case
even though it has been assumed the death was accidental.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But then the body is stolen from the
morgue and the Defence Ministry puts a news blackout on the case.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Zen has already been to see the cave
and been given photographs of the body by the cavers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But his superior, Brugnoli, summons
him back to Rome and arranges to meet him secretly in a park to discuss the
delicate political nuances.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The official line is that the body is
that of a soldier who was accidentally killed during a training exercise many
years ago. The defence ministry say he was a member of an elite special force
modelled on the British SAS that never existed officially and therefore secrecy
about the discovery has to be maintained.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Brugnoli tells him that because of
the delicate state of the current political situation in Italy there is a lot
at stake both for his department and the future of the country but that a
skilled operator such as Zen might be able to turn up some interesting material
that could be useful.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He says that ideally he wants a huge
scandal that will be front page news and implicate the entire defence ministry,
but that he will settle for anything that can be used against them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Zen is to work on the case on his own
and not to communicate with him overtly, but to arrange another clandestine
meeting with him if necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Zen’s enquiries take him to <b>Milan</b>,
the <b>Po Valley</b> and <b>Lake Lugano</b> on the border between Italy and Switzerland. He
has to operate unofficially and work round the clock but he manages to find out
why the dead man was killed and by whom and achieves justice for the victim.
With the help of a veteran journalist he goes to visit, he even manages to get
the optimum result his superior has asked for.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Brilliantly plotted and beautifully
written, I think that <b>Medusa</b> is one of Michael Dibdin’s finest novels and well
worth reading.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I agree with one of the reviews on
the back cover that says: ‘Dibdin’s Medusa is just as good as an Italian
holiday.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><i>Your buying choices:</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><a href="https://amzn.to/2YvQSYG" target="_blank"><input b90bb="" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor=" onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor=" style="background-color: #1b90bb; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-left-width: 1px; border-radius: 5px; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: 1px; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px; margin: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding: 8px;" this.style.bordercolor="#d5d5d5" this.style.color="#FFFFFF" type="button" value="Amazon" /></a><a href="https://tidd.ly/3afm0RG" target="_blank"><input b90bb="" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor=" onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor=" style="background-color: #1b90bb; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-left-width: 1px; border-radius: 5px; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: 1px; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px; margin: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding: 8px;" this.style.bordercolor="#d5d5d5" this.style.color="#FFFFFF" type="button" value="Waterstones" />
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</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;">(Lake Lugano picture by </span><a href="Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/orcatec-2164300/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=2705012">Jonathan Reichel</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=2705012">Pixabay</a>" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">Jonathan Reichel</a><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"> via </span><a href="https://pixabay.com/" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">Pixabay</a><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;">)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><a href="http://www.crimesceneitaly.com">Home</a></p>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-26850332850834960532021-01-14T18:31:00.013+00:002022-02-06T13:03:25.208+00:00The Wings of the Spinx<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;">An Inspector Montalbano Mystery by
Andrea Camilleri</span></h3><div style="background: white; border-bottom: solid #F1F1F5 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm;"><h3 style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b></b></span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUL8vj7Z4k5N05BWGI2aQD-5KKf4euomov02JTtu3AAdlzBXhyphenhyphenr4mB2yA2Vhy_TRvjiMS95fI98Du6Vsz3wpJmRjJT9fYXWPphZ35IuxYSVVjn34LtAJG8SWlC2u105GDE6xcwZvprxYu8/s1600/3a695a4d-a43a-4ef9-b71c-647950e4ef27.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Andrea Camilleri's Montalbano stories are set in southeast Sicily" border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUL8vj7Z4k5N05BWGI2aQD-5KKf4euomov02JTtu3AAdlzBXhyphenhyphenr4mB2yA2Vhy_TRvjiMS95fI98Du6Vsz3wpJmRjJT9fYXWPphZ35IuxYSVVjn34LtAJG8SWlC2u105GDE6xcwZvprxYu8/w320-h240/3a695a4d-a43a-4ef9-b71c-647950e4ef27.jpg" title="Andrea Camilleri's Montalbano stories are set in southeast Sicily" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andrea Camilleri's Montalbano stories are<br />set in southeast Sicily </td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Inspector Montalbano is called in to
investigate after the naked body of a young woman is found in a rubbish dump on
his territory. She has been shot in the face and is unrecognisable, but there
is a tattoo of a sphinx moth on her left shoulder.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Montalbano is struggling with his
feelings about getting older and anxious that his long distance, but long
lasting relationship with his girlfriend, Livia, is in trouble.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But he sets out to try to establish
the victim’s identity, with the help of Mimì Augello, his deputy, and his loyal
and hard working officer, Fazio.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The inspector soon discovers that
there are three other young women in the area with the same tattoo on their
left shoulders but they can’t help him identify the dead woman as they are all
missing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When his enquiries lead him to
interview a <b>Monsignor</b>, the head of a religious charity, who says they rescued
the girls from sex traffickers, the Inspector suddenly smells a huge rat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But he is hampered in his work when
he is hauled up before his boss, the<b> Commissioner,</b> who is angry that his
questions have offended the Monsignor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY8UpGYes240o-3JQGLjVCMRgE2KLH8ktmznA6xmMuWUjNqWQQvFBuK7DDqeMqCzbvoO2EZeHAtCuD9Nx1_92CFIdPEKP_fPUOa1BShBNFtvPcqmrDBxL1u-CL9NygguON9XnSYkTfRWk4/s588/book+cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="404" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY8UpGYes240o-3JQGLjVCMRgE2KLH8ktmznA6xmMuWUjNqWQQvFBuK7DDqeMqCzbvoO2EZeHAtCuD9Nx1_92CFIdPEKP_fPUOa1BShBNFtvPcqmrDBxL1u-CL9NygguON9XnSYkTfRWk4/s320/book+cover.jpg" /></a></span></span></div><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He is also under time pressure
because he has promised to free himself from work to be able to spend some
meaningful time with Livia.<o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It doesn’t help his mood that the
weather is so bad the fishermen can’t go out to sea and day after day there is
no fresh fish on the menu at <b>Enzo’s Trattoria.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But Montalbano has to keep going, to
get justice for the dead girl and to be able to free himself of the case to
concentrate on his relationship with Livia.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He has just unmasked the killer and
is on the way to the airport to meet Livia when someone else involved in the
case is shot in the face.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He has to race against time to tie up
the loose ends so he can hand the case over to the chief of the <b>Flying Squad</b>
but still get the resolution he wants to achieve. There are many twists and
turns and the suspense is maintained until he finally boards a plane to Genoa
in his desperate pursuit of Livia to try to save their relationship.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But when he arrives at Livia’s
apartment in <b>Boccadasse</b>, a village just outside Genoa, Montalbano gets a big
surprise…<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Buy from <a href="https://amzn.to/2MGXT6x" target="_blank">
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><b style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;">More Montalbano stories reviewed:</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><b><a href="https://www.crimesceneitaly.com/2020/11/august-heat.html" target="_blank">August Heat</a></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><b><a href="https://www.crimesceneitaly.com/2020/07/the-patience-of-spider-andrea-camilleri.html" target="_blank">The Patience of the Spider</a></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><b><a href="https://www.crimesceneitaly.com/2020/02/rounding-mark.html" target="_blank">Rounding the Mark</a></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><b>More reading:</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><b><a href="https://www.crimesceneitaly.com/p/andrea-camilleri.html" target="_blank">Andrea Camilleri profile and full list of Montalbano titles</a></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.crimesceneitaly.com">Home</a></span></p>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-42272858203075846452021-01-02T15:55:00.006+00:002021-02-05T18:04:48.689+00:00The Marshal’s Own Case<h3 style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A Marshal
Guarnaccia Investigation by Magdalen Nabb<br /></span><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b></b></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii0y4ZavoueUwtzm2sdfy31FejFMIBnXl8fXuuBxTvtv4ekYA0aHg-D-8xyOE0Xecf62p0oIyw18oh3tz5JyX3NBzsZ6DXNCpt2j1EDOTeXRhHIvIfGPL3p2WlDOKIze3pfxef67sdcmhT/s1280/florence-2976609_1280.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Marshall Guarnaccia investigates grisly goings-on after dark in Florence" border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1280" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii0y4ZavoueUwtzm2sdfy31FejFMIBnXl8fXuuBxTvtv4ekYA0aHg-D-8xyOE0Xecf62p0oIyw18oh3tz5JyX3NBzsZ6DXNCpt2j1EDOTeXRhHIvIfGPL3p2WlDOKIze3pfxef67sdcmhT/w320-h213/florence-2976609_1280.jpg" title="Marshall Guarnaccia investigates grisly goings-on after dark in Florence" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marshall Guarnaccia investigates grisly<br />goings-on after dark in Florence</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Marshal
Salvatore Guarnaccia’s superior officer in the Carabinieri, Captain
Maestrangelo, puts him in charge of a murder case after a chopped up body is
found in plastic bags on his territory.</b><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It takes
the Marshal away from his familiar world in the Carabinieri station at the
<b>Pitti Palace </b>and plunges him into the nocturnal world of the transgender
prostitutes operating in Florence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">For
despite having breasts, the body which has been neatly sawn into pieces and
dispersed between a number of plastic bags, turns out to be that of a man not a
woman.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Despite
observing that the Marshal never has much to say for himself, the Captain rates
his ability and knows that the Marshal doesn’t miss much, as evidenced by his
previous successes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But the
Marshal has to learn quickly, in order to operate within a community he has no
experience of, and which seems a long way from the daily difficulties of
tourists and their lost property and passports that he is used to.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He is
dismayed when the Captain hands him a pile of files relating to previous
murders of prostitutes and their clients in Florence, all of which are marked
Unsolved.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPkz59ITv5WqbcTzdu6_NqGfm4LO3JVloNjrT8_PYxDJD6nLOAELOoPkbhzQ5UJHIlM9kWFFdgZjE1SDHczJ6KcpBJQG-6-dxzVV4oQYRB8ZYgKvyNgQVnaOXlEc-m_kjhLzmEmSjMrgQt/s197/magdalen-nabb_200804a+%25282%2529.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="177" data-original-width="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPkz59ITv5WqbcTzdu6_NqGfm4LO3JVloNjrT8_PYxDJD6nLOAELOoPkbhzQ5UJHIlM9kWFFdgZjE1SDHczJ6KcpBJQG-6-dxzVV4oQYRB8ZYgKvyNgQVnaOXlEc-m_kjhLzmEmSjMrgQt/s0/magdalen-nabb_200804a+%25282%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Magdalen Nabb set 14<br />crime novels in Florence</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial;">But the
Captain does assign to him one of his own men, Ferrini, a friendly and
talkative officer, who knows his way around in the shadowy world of transgender
prostitution.<o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Guarnaccia
quickly develops some sympathy for the tragic men, who have had surgery and
been given hormone treatments to make them look like women, so that they can
satisfy the desires of their regular clients, who are usually seemingly
respectable men living in Florence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When
Peppina, one of the transgender prostitutes, is arrested and locked in a cell,
suspected of the murder of what turns out to be Lulu, one of her rivals, Guarnaccia
believes she is not guilty of the crime.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">He is so
sure of Peppina’s innocence, despite the evidence against her, he insists on
continuing his inquiries, even though he is urged to drop the investigation
because the Prosecutor has said he is satisfied with the result.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Against a
backdrop of other problems, with one of his two young sons not doing well at
school and getting into trouble, and his wife urging him to look for the missing
son of an acquaintance from back home in Sicily, he keeps going out at night in
terrible weather to try to solve the crime to his own satisfaction.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">His
patience and tenacity pays off and he catches the real killer, strives to get
the most lenient sentence for Peppina for other charges she is facing, and can
then finally turn his attention to his own, troubled young son.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This is
another compelling mystery by Magdalen Nabb, which exposes a shadowy part of
life going on at night in the beautiful, historic city of Florence. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Buy from <a href='https://amzn.to/3tvEDtl' target='_blank'>
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<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a href="www.crimesceneitaly.com">Home</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-2475788862190075862020-11-27T12:38:00.008+00:002021-02-05T18:05:46.748+00:00A Sea of Troubles<h3 style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; padding: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;">A Commissario Brunetti novel by Donna
Leon<br /></span><span style="color: #1d2228;"><o:p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></o:p></span></h3><div style="background: white; border-bottom: solid #F1F1F5 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>After a fisherman and his son are
murdered and left on their boat, which is then set on fire and sunk,
Commissario Brunetti has to go to the island of Pellestrina in the Venetian
lagoon to investigate the crime.</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But the <b>Commissario </b>and his Sergeant,
<b>Vianello</b>, find themselves up against a brick wall in the close-knit community
of <b>Pellestrina, </b>where the tough fishermen and their downtrodden wives
stubbornly avoid cooperating with the police.</span></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5lv1oyEtn2yXQYlIPvstWR6ErVcECEYQaIg-jS_8GVJY5JQnl45DwjttcRcFJ5DoEXnVkhLBN3u9JR2t-mk2tHok3G_L8bI-19S52BbAP3fX72bTRVZwgolJs38LjahwoEipp6h2pftrb/s2048/CSI+lagoon.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5lv1oyEtn2yXQYlIPvstWR6ErVcECEYQaIg-jS_8GVJY5JQnl45DwjttcRcFJ5DoEXnVkhLBN3u9JR2t-mk2tHok3G_L8bI-19S52BbAP3fX72bTRVZwgolJs38LjahwoEipp6h2pftrb/s320/CSI+lagoon.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The lagoon can be treacherous in bad weather<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;">The beautiful and stylish </span><b style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;">Signorina
Elettra</b><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;">, the Vice-Questore’s secretary, reveals she has a cousin who lives on
the island and volunteers to visit her for a few days to see what she can find
out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Despite his misgivings about her
safety, Brunetti finds he can’t dissuade her and she takes some holiday from
the<b> Questura</b> to go to the island.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Brunetti and Vianello continue to
pursue their enquiries officially, returning to Pellestrina, which is south of
the <b>Lido</b> out in the lagoon, in the police launch, piloted by the long-serving
Bonsuan.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Meanwhile, Signorina Elettra enjoys
her holiday, while maintaining her cover, but finds herself falling for a
handsome stranger she is introduced to in a bar.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The atmosphere of Pellestrina, which
is only a few kilometres from Venice, but where the inhabitants don’t even
speaks the same dialect as the Venetians, is evoked well by Donna Leon. She
displays her extensive knowledge of the island, which is just a short trip
across the water from Venice, where she lives.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But the weather in this part of Italy
in the spring can change quickly and as Brunetti is getting closer to the
truth, a terrible storm descends, which puts them all at risk.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>A Sea of Troubles</i> won the Crime
Writers’ Association Macallan Silver Dagger in 2000.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Buy from <a href="https://amzn.to/3rh6yLP" target="_blank">
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-66658034525339883372020-11-10T18:28:00.022+00:002021-02-05T18:07:02.124+00:00August Heat<h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><span style="font-family: arial;">An
Inspector Montalbano Mystery by Andrea Camilleri</span></h3>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Montalbano
has been tasked by his girlfriend, Livia, with finding a villa near his
Sicilian home for her and her friends to rent during the August holiday period.
He finds it impossible, with all the estate agents laughingly telling him every
property was let out ages ago.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Then, by
some miracle he is notified of a cancellation. A nice house by the sea with
access to the beach has become available only six miles from where he lives.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7JkgE2YxcWSj-C0RxJJyJSL8I6YqdjOqo6AffUdPLQBFYBfz8PEZ9ObNKi_4xVURrHRSY3BirFEwFalhwcxherQUKB_5p0hrobGaGeHdjN7t1Bjd9HUOhepnM8T95fxMCB-AMuuvUs2j/s1600/Montalbano+beach.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB7JkgE2YxcWSj-C0RxJJyJSL8I6YqdjOqo6AffUdPLQBFYBfz8PEZ9ObNKi_4xVURrHRSY3BirFEwFalhwcxherQUKB_5p0hrobGaGeHdjN7t1Bjd9HUOhepnM8T95fxMCB-AMuuvUs2j/s320/Montalbano+beach.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Montalbano's investigation gives him chance to<br /> cool off in the sea during the heat of August</td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But after
Livia and her friends, a married couple with a young child, arrive, there is
one disaster after another. They have to deal with invasions of cockroaches,
rodents and spiders before they can settle down and enjoy their holiday.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After the
couple’s young son goes missing, Livia calls in Montalbano to investigate. He
discovers the child has fallen down a hole in the garden and accidentally
discovered a hidden basement where he is trapped.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After the
little boy has been rescued, Montalbano notices an old trunk in the basement
and when he opens it, makes a grim discovery.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It is the
final straw for the family and they leave with Livia, all blaming the whole
fiasco on the hapless Montalbano.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The
inspector launches an investigation after his discovery, with the assistance of
two of his officers, the diligent Fazio and the comical Catarella.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But he is
hampered by the scorching Sicilian weather making it difficult to work and also
becomes distracted by his feelings for a beautiful, young blonde girl who is
involved in the case.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Montalbano
is kept going by taking long swims in the sea and making frequent visits to his
favourite trattoria . He also enjoys the wonderful Sicilian delicacies prepared
for him by his housekeeper, Adelina, such as<i> pappanozza</i>, boiled onions and
potatoes mashed and served cold seasoned with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper and <i>purpiteddri</i>, baby octopus in a sauce of tomatoes and olives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Using his
unorthodox sleuthing tactics and brilliant flashes of intuition he solves the
case, achieving a Montalbano style of justice at the end.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Buy from <a href="https://amzn.to/3j86D1B" target="_blank">
<input b90bb="" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor=" onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor=" style="background-color: #1b90bb; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-left-width: 1px; border-radius: 5px; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: 1px; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px; margin: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding: 8px;" this.style.bordercolor="#d5d5d5" this.style.color="#FFFFFF" type="button" value="Amazon" /></a><a href="https://tidd.ly/2MJAJfw" target="_blank"><input b90bb="" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor=" onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor=" style="background-color: #1b90bb; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-left-width: 1px; border-radius: 5px; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: 1px; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px; margin: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding: 8px;" this.style.bordercolor="#d5d5d5" this.style.color="#FFFFFF" type="button" value="Waterstones" /></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><b>More reading:</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><b><a href="https://www.crimesceneitaly.com/p/andrea-camilleri.html" target="_blank">Andrea Camilleri profile and full list of Montalbano titles</a></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; border: none; line-height: normal; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #F1F1F5 .75pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 0cm 0cm 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.crimesceneitaly.com">Home</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-30532262738909177852020-10-30T14:53:00.004+00:002021-02-05T18:07:46.221+00:00And Then You Die<h3 style="text-align: left;">An Aurelio Zen Mystery by Michael Dibdin</h3><p><b></b></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUrDjaDsBfj7Yvj1fPGXqf56bZPlHhq8pocSrUa7ePxvK_vcmk2vYyWmClpnKMJpQ8UPbo02s_E2W5Y1i-OE4e6oKFzXOEqJ0Pvmdyvsbmev30zEPZ1N0rCBWRIlGJqn4YaMH4OvTo52l3/s960/beach-4304689_960_720.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="(Italian beach view by Hermann via Pixabay)" border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="960" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUrDjaDsBfj7Yvj1fPGXqf56bZPlHhq8pocSrUa7ePxvK_vcmk2vYyWmClpnKMJpQ8UPbo02s_E2W5Y1i-OE4e6oKFzXOEqJ0Pvmdyvsbmev30zEPZ1N0rCBWRIlGJqn4YaMH4OvTo52l3/w400-h266/beach-4304689_960_720.jpg" title="(Italian beach view by Hermann via Pixabay)" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Italian beach view by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/hermann-130146/" target="_blank">Hermann</a> via <a href="https://pixabay.com/" target="_blank">Pixabay</a>)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><b>Detective Aurelio Zen is recuperating at a beach resort in Tuscany after a long stay in hospital following a bomb attack on his car.</b><p></p><p>But when a man who has cheekily taken his place on his allotted sunbed on the beach is shot dead one afternoon, Zen realises that the members of the Mafia who had tried to kill him at the end of the previous book, <i>Blood Rain,</i> have had another go,</p><p>The authorities want him alive and well so he can testify at an anti-Mafia trial in the US so they waste no time in shipping him out of his peaceful coastal retreat. This inconveniences Zen, who under a false name has been about to embark on a romance with a lady from Lucca he has met on the beach.</p><p>Zen is taken to a remote prison island off the coast of Tuscany to lie low for a while before he is put on the plane to America.</p><p>Once on board, Zen moves to another seat to make himself more comfortable. The male passenger who decides to move into his empty seat is later found dead.</p><p>Due to technical difficulties, later discovered to be sabotage, the plane is forced to land in Iceland. Zen's adventures continue there when he is attacked by a man with a knife in a street in Reykjavik.</p><p>The reader is then taken on a roller coaster ride with Zen that takes him back to Rome, on to Florence, back to the beach resort and then to Lucca, where he is finally able to concentrate on his blossoming relationship. But has he overcome all the obstacles to his happiness?</p><p>He is constantly puzzled by a slogan in English he keeps seeing on the front of T shirts, <i>Life's a beach</i>. But what has that got to do with the words on the back, <i>And then you die?</i> Finally when Zen is on board a boat out at sea everything falls into place for both Zen and the reader.</p><p><i>And Then You Die</i> is another gripping read from Michael Dibdin with some wonderful descriptions of locations in Italy.</p><p>Buy from <a href="https://amzn.to/3tii0Z9" target="_blank">
<input b90bb="" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor=" onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor=" style="background-color: #1b90bb; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-left-width: 1px; border-radius: 5px; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: 1px; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px; margin: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding: 8px;" this.style.bordercolor="#d5d5d5" this.style.color="#FFFFFF" type="button" value="Amazon" /></a><a href="https://tidd.ly/2YxhbgX" target="_blank"><input b90bb="" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor=" onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor=" style="background-color: #1b90bb; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-left-width: 1px; border-radius: 5px; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: 1px; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px; margin: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding: 8px;" this.style.bordercolor="#d5d5d5" this.style.color="#FFFFFF" type="button" value="Waterstones" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="www.crimesceneitaly.com">Home</a></p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94951082483380072.post-71195366636055665402020-10-13T20:04:00.006+01:002021-02-05T18:08:30.958+00:00The Paper Moon<h3 style="text-align: left;">An Inspector Montalbano Mystery by Andrea Camilleri</h3><p><b></b></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQMiH2OYGgCafaJ_CSjxLpR0TviCzBxdX0HE3DqabaXdv95fj5nrCGddGhtayC_KpQYRfhMzOb4uN5_gapYmYvUKxbwY4_8JcnsoXLs63mbCX9NzA4i8Q8wl1eSd79dij8mSuCFXCcCdH/s698/sicily+street.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="629" data-original-width="698" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQMiH2OYGgCafaJ_CSjxLpR0TviCzBxdX0HE3DqabaXdv95fj5nrCGddGhtayC_KpQYRfhMzOb4uN5_gapYmYvUKxbwY4_8JcnsoXLs63mbCX9NzA4i8Q8wl1eSd79dij8mSuCFXCcCdH/s320/sicily+street.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Sicilian street scene by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/tama66-1032521/" target="_blank">Tama66</a> via <a href="https://pixabay.com/" target="_blank">Pixabay</a>)</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><b>Montalbano has to spend time with not one, but two, beautiful women while carrying out a murder investigation and at times finds himself distracted from his duties.</b><p></p><p>The victim is a pharmaceutical salesman who was shot in the face at point blank range at a moment when his trousers were down.</p><p>One of the beautiful women is the dead man’s sister. She calls on Montalbano to investigate her brother’s disappearance and Montalbano finds himself fascinated with her eyes.</p><p>He accompanies her to her brother’s apartment and after they fail to find any trace of the missing man he reluctantly gives in to her request to break down the locked door of a small room on his terrace. Inside, Montalbano finds the body of the victim.</p><p>When he goes to see the dead man’s mistress, a blue eyed blonde in her thirties, he is stunned by her beauty and finds it hard to concentrate on the case.</p><p>While he carries out his investigation he is constantly preoccupied by the fear that he is becoming forgetful as he gets older. He even writes a letter to himself to remind him of the facts in the case.</p><p>He is assisted as always by the faithful, but hapless Catarella, who works round the clock to access files on the dead man’s computer for which he doesn’t have the password, confusing Montalbano by constantly referring to it as ‘the last word’.</p><p>Meanwhile, local politicians are dying because of a batch of dirty cocaine that is in circulation and every day Montalbano’s appointment with the Commissioner has to be cancelled for some reason by Dr Lattes (with an s on the end) who telephones Catarella with the news.</p><p>Things are as complicated and hilarious as ever at police headquarters but a determined Montalbano gets to the truth in the end.</p><p>Buy from <a href="https://amzn.to/2L7zjej" target="_blank">
<input b90bb="" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor=" onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor=" style="background-color: #1b90bb; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-left-width: 1px; border-radius: 5px; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: 1px; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px; margin: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding: 8px;" this.style.bordercolor="#d5d5d5" this.style.color="#FFFFFF" type="button" value="Amazon" /></a><a href="https://tidd.ly/3autfWa" target="_blank"><input b90bb="" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor=" onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor=" style="background-color: #1b90bb; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: rgb(213, 213, 213); border-left-width: 1px; border-radius: 5px; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-width: 1px; border-width: 1px; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 8px; margin: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding: 8px;" this.style.bordercolor="#d5d5d5" this.style.color="#FFFFFF" type="button" value="Waterstones" /></a></p><p><a href="www.italyonthisday.com">Home</a></p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0