The Murdered Banker

The first Inspector De Vincenzi mystery by Augusto De Angelis

Augusto De Angelis's mystery The Murdered
Banker is set in the Milan of the 1930s

The Murdered Banker 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.

First published in 1935 in Italian as Il banchiere assassinato, the novel appeared at the peak of the British Golden Age of detective fiction, six years after Italian publishers Mondadori had launched their crime series in yellow (giallo) covers that would later result in the word gialli being used to refer to mystery novels and films.

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.

However, journalist De Angelis 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.

To begin with, Mussolini 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.

The Pushkin Vertigo edition
of The Murdered Banker

The Murdered Banker was the first of 20 novels by De Angelis featuring Inspector De Vincenzi, 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.

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 Donna Leon’s Brunetti. His disregard for the rules, unorthodox  behaviour and moments of inspiration also made me think of Michael Dibdin’s Zen and Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano.

The story starts on a foggy night in Milan, 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.

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.

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.

De Angelis wrote 20 Inspector De
Vincenzi novels in just eight years

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.

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.

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.

An English translation of The Murdered Banker by Jill Foulston was published by Pushkin Vertigo in 2016. 

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A Death in Tuscany

A Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara novel by Michele Giuttari

Giuttari's novels are set in the historic and
atmospheric city of Florence

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.

Michele Giuttari is well qualified to describe the way the Squadra Mobile (Flying Squad) unit of the Florence police operates as he once headed the unit himself when he was a serving officer in the Polizia di Stato.

This is the second novel in his series featuring Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara 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.

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.

Michele Giuttari writes with authority as
a former serving police officer

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.

Ferrara digs deeper and embarks on an investigation that soon throws up connections with some of the richest and most powerful people in Florence.

In the meantime, his old friend from Sicily, bookshop owner Massimo Verga, goes missing while staying on the Tuscan coast.

Ferrara and his wife, Petra, 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.

The Carabinieri 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.

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.

It is a race against time to find Massimo before anything happens to him and also to prove he is innocent of the murder.

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.

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.

 

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(Image of Florence by Mark Gilder from Pixabay)

The Death of a Mafia Don

A Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara novel by Michele Giuttari

Looking along the Arno towards Ponte Vecchio in Florence,
the backdrop for Michele Giuttari's book

When a bomb explodes near Chief Superintendant Ferrara’s car in the centre of Florence, leaving the head of the Squadra Mobile injured, there is an urgent need to find out who was responsible to prevent further atrocities.

Ferrara is unconscious and in hospital so his loyal colleagues have to start the investigation without him.

There are conflicting theories. It could have been the work of Muslim extremists but it could also have been revenge by the Mafia for the imprisonment of their boss, Salvatore Laprua.

Soon after he regains consciousness, Ferrara discharges himself from hospital and goes straight back to his office to lead the inquiry.

It becomes even more personal for him when a second bomb goes off and his colleague and friend, Acting Prosecutor Anna Giulietti, is killed.

To add to the complications, Mafia boss Salvatore Laprua is then found dead in his prison cell.

This is a fast moving novel about potential terrorism and Mafia activity in Italy seen from the perspective of the security forces.

It shows the way the police and the Carabinieri work together and there is a realistic portrait of Florence as the backdrop, described by an author who was himself responsible for jailing several key Mafia figures while heading the Squadra Mobile in both Florence and Reggio Calabria.

The author, Giuttari, has been a special adviser to the interior minister in Rome with the remit  of monitoring Mafia activity.

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A Florentine Death

The first Michele Ferrara mystery by Michele Giuttari

This novel will fascinate any readers who might wish to learn about the methods or see into the minds of the Italian police.

The hero, Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara, is the head of the Squadra Mobile in Florence.

He is the creation of a former police chief, Michele Giuttari, who headed the police in Florence between 1995 and 2003 and can therefore write with authority about murder investigations, interviewing suspects and organising armed police operations.

As well as providing an authentic account of police procedure in a multiple murder investigation, Giuttari delivers a cleverly plotted mystery that becomes increasingly more gripping as it reaches its dramatic conclusion.

Anyone who loves Florence will enjoy the setting and perhaps appreciate Giuttari’s portrayal of the beauty and the occasional darkness of everyday life in the city.

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(Picture by Liliy2025 from Pixabay)

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