Accused by Mark Toscano

In Accused, the reader meets the Corsaro brothers, Fabrizio and Roberto. The brothers alternate the telling of the crime story in a first person narration. Fabrizio, a self-indulgent, superficial, sadistic man is one character I did not enjoy reading from the first-person, but his family-man, mature, loving brother helped keep me reading the tale.

The novel is divided into three acts entitled Crime, Punishment, Truth. A short Epilog wraps up the end. We get to see how a crime comes to light, how punishment is applied, and how the truth becomes known.

Fabrizio is accused of the crime and his punishment begins even without a conviction. Lawyer Roberto works to clear his brother by investigating and unveiling the truth. As is often the case in real life, no one really comes out a winner at the end, and all are transformed to some extent by their experiences.

The strong character depictions and the realistic portrayal of how prison changes people were the parts that I enjoyed the most in the book.

The time I had to spend inside Fabrizio's head was the part of the novel that I enjoyed the least.

The story takes place in modern-day Sicily and is rich with popular culture references, just as our daily lives are rich with them. The author has created a story that might remind readers of Martin Cruz Smith's novels. FYI there are some vulgarities.

From the book's description:

Onofrio Palillo receives compensation many years after the fact for wrongful imprisonment on a charge of murder.

After a series of unfortunate coincidences, journalist Fabrizio Corsaro turns up to find Palillo dead at his home. Police investigations, however, reveal incriminating evidence which leads detectives to suspect Fabrizio himself of the murder. He is arrested, and his brother Roberto, a criminal lawyer, is faced with the task of saving him from this nightmare into which his life has suddenly been plunged. With the help of deputy police prefect Domenico Fisichella, Roberto delves into Palillo's mysterious past.

They discover an old secret which puts them on the trail of the most powerful man in Sicily, Giorgio Moncada.

Here is a link to the book at Amazon.com:

The Girl From Venice by Martin Cruz Smith

This is probably one for readers who enjoy Raymond Chandler books and the film Casablanca. The author uses the hard-boiled style to present a tough-guy love story set in the era when Italy went truly, totally bonkers: the end of WWII. The spare style is best appreciated if you picture the text as a film playing in your mind.

Family, rivalry, friendship, loyalties, prejudice, politics, pop culture and military culture all mix together in this well-researched book. Through it all we are shown how the exhausted Italians just tried to keep their heads down and emotions doused so they could make it through to the end of the horrible nightmare. Clinging to daily rituals and pretending that the outside world was more fiction than reality, the inhabitants of Venice feel very real in this story.

Readers will get the most out of the story if they have a basic understanding of the history of the era. Briefly, after insanely embracing Mussolini, a megalomaniacal bully, criminal, misogynistic, pathological liar who promised the world and more to the poor country, Italy then came to its senses and switched sides in the war Mussolini signed them up to. Then they had to fight a war against Nazis while at the same time fighting a civil war between opposing Italian political sides.

To top up the insanity, an embattled and increasingly bonkers Mussolini established a fantasy Republic of Salo in northern Italy where he deluded himself into believing he could hang on to power. The author takes the reader into that crazy place at a certain point in the novel, and portrays the crackpot enablers of the dictator very ably, bringing to mind the evil, manipulative minions in the classic 1945 Rossellini film Roma, Citta Aperta.

The tough-guy with a broken heart protagonist of the book, the Venetian fisherman Cenzo, has shut himself down to make it through the war. He fishes, sleeps, eats and broods until he fishes up a young Venetian woman, Giulia, who escaped a purge of Jewish prisoners. She brings him back to life, and through the course of the book, she becomes the reason he reengages with the insanity around him, putting him in contact with the Republic of Salo and the forces fighting in Italy on all sides.

At first, refined Giulia is seen thus by jaded, coarse Cenzo:

The girl was a brief interruption in his life and the less he knew about her, the better.

Occasionally we see the story from Giulia's perspective, but mainly the narration is from Cenzo's perspective, which reflects the Italian perspective at that time.

Then you switch sides in the middle of a war, it gets very confusing.

The first part of the book is the reawakening of Cenzo that comes through his discussions with Giulia as he teaches her his fisherman's craft. Like therapy, describing what he loves most in life, what keeps him sane when the world around his is off its rocker, helps Cenzo open up to Giulia. He even comes to care about her troubles.

...he found his own miseries reduced in size when he focused on hers.

Acts Two and Three of the novel then move the reawakened Cenzo into the world of spying, the retreating German Nazis, the rival partisan factions, and the wacko Republic of Salo. There is some violence but this is not a gory book. There is some sex, but suggested only, not in scene. There are family rivalries that become explained as the story progresses, explaining some of Cenzo's resentments and his heartbreak. Cenzo is a tough-guy who falls for a waif and tries to protect her in the middle of a world gone crazy.

The author is a wonderful writer with a distinctive style that will appeal to his loyal fans. Some readers may find the spare, butch, hard-boiled style not to their liking. I suggest sticking with it, and being an active reader, visualizing the story as it is told, and empathizing with the characters to understand their feelings. The style is for perceptive, informed readers who don't need, or want, everything spelled out. The plot is unraveled at the end with a clear explanation for the reader.

For Italophiles, the book offers a look at an odd moment in Italy's history, but from a different, more personal angle than found in history books. Brush up on the history beforehand, then enjoy the details that come out from the author's in depth research, along with the tender tough-guy love story.

From the book's description:

The highly anticipated new standalone novel from Martin Cruz Smith, whom The Washington Post has declared “that uncommon phenomenon: a popular and well-regarded crime novelist who is also a writer of real distinction,” The Girl from Venice is a suspenseful World War II love story set against the beauty, mystery, and danger of occupied Venice.

Venice, 1945. The war may be waning, but the city known as La Serenissima is still occupied and the people of Italy fear the power of the Third Reich. One night, under a canopy of stars, a fisherman named Cenzo comes across a young woman’s body floating in the lagoon and soon discovers that she is still alive and in trouble.

Born to a wealthy Jewish family, Giulia is on the run from the SS. Cenzo chooses to protect Giulia rather than hand her over to the Nazis. This act of kindness leads them into the world of Partisans, random executions, the arts of forgery and high explosives, Mussolini’s broken promises, the black market and gold, and, everywhere, the enigmatic maze of the Venice Lagoon.

The Girl from Venice is a thriller, a mystery, and a retelling of Italian history that will take your breath away. Most of all it is a love story.

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Blood Curse (Commissario Ricciardi Series) by Maurizio di Giovanni

Literature, horror, police procedural, classic mystery:  that's what you get in the Commissario Ricciardi Series.  Blood Curse is book two.  Two aspects of Italian culture are featured in Blood Curse:  motherhood, and an over emphasis on physical beauty.  People suffer terribly in the book for both aspects.

The book begins by introducing the characters, using skilled third-person narration in both the classic omniscient style and sometimes in the limited style, with a darkly ironic narrative voice.  There are many poetical touches in the text, especially when Naples is described.

Book One

To be honest, one-third of a way into the book, I returned to the start and skimmed through to make sure I had everyone and everything thing straight, before continuing reading through to the end.  It was worth the effort.

I love challenging books that have big rewards, and this is one of those books.  There is much for an Italophile to enjoy in this series that is written in Italian and wonderfully translated into English.  The translator smoothly inserts explanations of the Italian elements, keeping a strong local flavor while making it intelligible for non-Italian readers.

 Book Three

Horror is not my favorite genre, and I avoid horror films like a plague, but I can just bear it in a book.  The horrific descriptions of the recently deceased in Blood Curse, and the other books in the series, have a purpose. 

Police Commissario Luigi Alfredo Ricciardi di Malomonte has a special ability that gives him a decided edge when solving homicide cases:  he can see the ghosts of the recently deceased, and hear their last thoughts and words.

With that ability (reminiscent of the film Sixth Sense and the TV show Ghost Whisperer) Ricciardi is:

...the sole spectator of the rotten theatre of human evil.

Book Four

 

The era is the early years of Italy's Fascist regime, the 1930s, so the reader gets a glimpse at what life under the Fascists was like (a police state is not pleasant, but many needed modernizations were made to Italy's infrastructure).

The setting is southern Italy's iconic city, Naples.  There is a real feel for the city and her people.  The differences between today's Naples and the Naples of then are pointed out, too.  If you know Naples, then you'll find that extra interest in the books.

The city reminded Ricciardi more all the time of one of those houses with a nice parlor for entertaining guests while the rest of the rooms were falling apart.

Book Five

 

Commissario Ricciardi is a tragic figure, suffering since childhood with his visions.  He isolates himself so as to not taint others with his burden, but that just adds to his sadness.  He was given a privileged upbringing, one that we glimpse in flashbacks now and then.

He has few close friends, but they are fiercely loyal:  his nanny from childhood, his police Brigadier, and the medical examiner who calls Ricciardi the "Prince of Darkness" because of his spectral appearance that strikes all who see him.

Book Six

 

Ricciardi's attempts, sometimes just imaginary, to have normal human contact, are very touching.  It is Ricciardi's, and his close friends', strong decency at the heart of the story that made the death and suffering bearable for this reader.  There is also some humor to lighten the tale.

If you are looking for Italian crime novels with a difference, this could be your go-to series.  Like all Italian fiction, it is rich with human psychology, both the good and the bad.  It is also at times literary, poetical, touching, funny, ghostly, macabre, fascinating and even educational about the historical era. 

   

Book Seven

 

Here are the books to-date in the Commissario Ricciardi Series:

1. I Will Have Vengeance (Winter - Novella)
2. Blood Curse (Spring)
3. Everyone in their Place (Summer)
4. The Day of the Dead (Autumn)
5. By My Hand (Winter)
6. Viper (Spring)
7. The Bottom of Your Heart (Summer)

Here is a direct link to the series page at Amazon.com.  Here is a direct link to Blood Curse at Amazon.com. 

Please visit the author's page at his English language publisher's site.

The 45th Nail by Michael Lahey and Ian Lahey

This original noir novel draws the reader in with a light, humorous first-person narration, by Bob, an American in Italy looking for a long lost relative.  A stay in Rome, followed by a road-trip around Italy with an Etruscan fanatic for tour guide makes up much of the action in the book. 

But like the dark comedy film "Shallow Grave", the progression under the skin of the protagonist is the biggest journey in the story.  We start with a flawed protagonist, Bob, someone we know is deceitful, unloving and mercenary, and through his unusual events and encounters in the story, his flawed character develops to a higher level of awfulness. 

The first hint that he is truly twisted down below is when he drops a joke about rape.  His lack of moral compass becomes more and more apparent as the story progresses, so that his actions at the end come as not much of a surprise.

This is a book for people who do not need to like the protagonist of the stories they read.  It is a well-written book, full of original touches, and much Italian lore, landscape and language.  WWII is the backdrop of the story, and it comes more to the fore as the story progresses.

For those who believe a person can inherit character weaknesses via DNA, this story will hold especial interest, as the similarities between Bob's flaws and the flaws of his long lost relative emerge in the course of the story. 

That was when I thought not of "Shallow Grave" but of Robert Duvall and John Savage as relatives in the 1987 noir drama "Hotel Colonial", in which a brother discovers how evil his elder brother is, and then finds that he too is capable of great violence when he judges it necessary.

The 45th Nail is a fascinating book for a discerning reader, but probably not to everyone's taste. 

From the book's description:

A Christmas card from Italy arrived on Robert Svenson’s desk. There was no return address, but when Bob opened the card, it was signed by his uncle, James Savorski. Nice, except for the fact that Uncle Jim was declared MIA back in ’44. Forty years later he’s sending solid gold Etruscan amulets for Christmas presents? Bob resolved to travel to Italy to see if he could find his long lost uncle.

How does one find a dead man in Italy without knowing the language or having an address? All Bob knew was that losing his luggage and his money the first night in Rome didn’t help. Then he found himself picking his way through a minefield of old scars and memories of war.
Along the way he journeys through Italy’s art and its incredible archaeological treasures, its history and people. A tale of war and mines and other things buried underground and even deeper—in the hearts of those who lived those years.

Here is the book's trailer:

 

Here is a direct link to the book at Amazon.com:

Please visit the book's official website.  This is the author's Facebook page.

Edited Out (Murder in Boston Series) by Cynthia Westland

Italian-American Carla Ferrari, a former police officer, the daughter of a police officer, is a private investigator in Boston, in the U.S, in Edited Out, Book Two in the Murder in Boston Series.  She has the P.I.'s requisite quirky, mouthy receptionist.  She also has a close-knit Italian-American family, and a hunky on-again-off-again boyfriend.  There is a growing genre of book that has all these elements, providing an ethnically flavored crime-romance-comedy for fans.

Carla could easily be a male character considering all the tropes surrounding her. 

She has:  "...an obsession for justice that made law enforcement her only source of fulfillment."

And she has a very cool car:  "a 1953 silver Alfa Romeo Disco Volante"

And a dog name Como, after the crooner Perry Como. 

But she is described as:  "...the gorgeous blonde with long legs and a body like a Playboy pin-up..."

The humor in Edited Out comes mostly from the characters of Carla's mother and Carla's sassy, stupid yet loyal receptionist.  Lots of Italian words and culture and food fly about those two characters, and among the families and the Italian community.  Some people might consider the characters stereotypical, others might find them realistic, but they are flat characters, mainly there to provide some lightness to the story.

Carla's overprotective and intrusive Italian-born mother has the juiciest dialog in the book:

You know, Carla, Cousin Joe still has a job waiting for you at the mortadella factory.  All you got to do is say the word, and you can get a job like normal people.

And Carla's relationship with her mother provides some tension in the story:

She'd rather explain to the Pope why she didn't go to mass for ten years, than explain to her mother why she wasn't going to be able to make dinner...

The one element that seemed out of place is the vulgarity in the Italian-born mother's speech:  she calls men "hanging provolone".  Inexplicably, Italian mom hasn't taught her daughter that "cannoli" is plural, and "cannolo" is the singular for the dessert.

There is a grittiness to the story, too, with death, widows, cops, and dark Boston settings, not to mention the main character's grief about her breakup with Nick Calvi, a homicide detective.

Carla knelt down to see the remains of a once vibrant young man, someone who lived, loved and then died on a cool, spring night in Boston.

At its best moments, the writing is reminiscent of Elmore Leonard or Robert B. Parker or Raymond Chandler.  Imagine a depressive Humphrey Bogart, with his wiseacre receptionist, and the crying female client who walks into the office.  Set them all in Boston, and lace the dialog with Boston slang.  But don't forget that Humphrey is a woman in this P.I. series.

The writing is not always consistent, however, seemingly a blend of the Noir P.I. style and the cozy murder mystery style with the narration in 3rd person limited.  The details of the criminal case become swamped by the cozy fun, and Carla's work is not always as sharp as one would expect from a former policewoman. 

But if you enjoy an Italian-flavored cozy mystery with a kick-ass female protagonist, then you might enjoy Edited Out and the Murder in Boston Series.  

Oh, I can't forget to mention that this book has a contender for the worst sex scene in a novel, not explicit, but certainly dressed with the oddest dialog, which I can only hope is an attempt at humor by the author:

Love me, Nick.  Love me like bread.  Tear me to shreds and consume me.

Buon appetito!

From the book's description:

When writer Dennis Carson buys a gun and goes missing, his wife Laura hires P.I. Carla Ferrari to investigate.  After Dennis turns up dead in Boston Harbor, Detective Nick Calvi of the Boston PD joins his ex-lover Carla on the case.  What was Dennis Carson working on and what did he discover that marked him for death?  From the author of Al Dente: a Murder in Boston, and the Silent Chanteuse, Cynthia Westland brings you her latest murder mystery; Edited Out.

Book One in the series is Al Dente: A Murder in Boston.

In this book, the reader becomes part of the story as Private Investigator Carla Ferrari and Boston Police Detective Nick Calvi uncover a series of clues to solve three twisted, diabolical murders. During their search for the killer, Nick and Carla reignite an old romance that's been smoldering just beneath the surface. Three wealthy women, all in good health are designated by the medical examiner as 'cause of death undetermined.' Every step that sends Carla and Nick into the dangerous world of a serial killer moves them closer to their personal destinies. Unmask the killer and solve the mystery of the three dead women and choose the ending to the story.

 Here are direct links to the two books in the series so far, at Amazon.com:

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Death and the Olive Grove (Inspector Bordelli Mystery) by Marco Vichi

Florence, Italy, in April of 1964 is the backdrop for this historical mystery, which is book two in the Inspector Bordelli Mystery Series.  The first case is mentioned in the book, so it is advisable to read the books in the series in order.  I review the first book in the series here on this site.

Police Inspector Bordelli is still cynical, a smoker (ex-smokers should stay clear of the Bordelli books!), an experienced policeman, victim to intrusive wartime flashbacks, sympathetic to the those on the low end of society, unpredictable, a binge drinker and eater, intuitive, and immature in his relations with women due to abuse in his childhood.  Although in this book Bordelli does spend the night with a woman, a dominatrix, of course, since that is what his past has doomed him to seek out.

Book 1 in the Series, reviewed on this site

Italian post WWII politics continues to leave Bordelli cold:

...the first twenty years of the republic had done more harm to Italy than the Fascists and Nazis combined.

Bordelli laments the materialistic and greedy newly-rich industrialists, the poverty-stricken underclass, the abandoned elderly, and the abandoned countryside.

The translation is missing some punctuation marks, some carriage returns, some subjunctive verbs, just like the first book in the series, which is a translation from Italian.  And it uses the British single quote in place of the double quote, which can be confusing now and then.  There are footnotes explaining some of the references to Italian culture and history, just as in the first book.

Book 3 in the series

There is more of a plotline in Death and the Olive Grove, with two main cases for Bordelli, and lots of bodies, some are very disturbingly children's bodies, but the series is more psychological novels than police procedurals.  We learn more about Bordelli's past:  his wartime experiences, his police work, and how he met certain people in his life.  The reader gets to revisit all the secondary characters from the first novel, one by one, and learn a bit more about them.

1960s Florence, Italy, was very different from today's tourist-swamped town, and the author enjoys pointing that out.  Here are 19 seconds of footage showing the main square with Fiat Cinquecentos and other mini-cars parked and driving about.  Fiat 500s are still to be seen, as a rarity, but cars are not allowed to drive in the main square any more!

 

The themes of the book feel much more important to the author than the police cases:  war reverberates through a society, damaging psyches, bodies and family ties.  You could describe Death and the Olive Grove as a study in the various forms of grief.  If you enjoy your police procedurals with high suspense, you may not enjoy the Inspector Bordelli books.  But if you enjoy getting into the head of a very messed up man who lived through some very interesting times in Italian history, you may enjoy the Bordelli books, like I do.

Book 4 in the series

From the description of Death in an Olive Grove:

The sequel to the critically acclaimed Death in August, which finds Inspector Bordelli facing a nightmarish murder mystery

It is April of 1964, and the cruelest month is breeding bad weather and worse news.  And plenty of disturbing news is coming to Florence detective Inspector Bordelli. Bordelli’s friend, Casimiro, insists he’s discovered the body of a man in a field above Fiesole.  Bordelli races to the scene, but doesn’t find any sign of a corpse.

Only a couple of days later, a little girl is found at Villa Ventaglio.  She has been strangled, and there is a horrible bite mark on her belly.  Then another young girl is found murdered, with the same macabre signature.  And meanwhile, Casimiro has disappeared without a trace.

This new investigation marks the start of one of the darkest periods of Bordelli’s life:  a nightmare without end, as black as the sky above Florence.

These are the books in the Inspector Bordelli Mystery Series so far:

• Death in August (set in summer 1963)
• Death and the Olive Grove (set in April 1964)
• Death in Sardinia (set in December 1965)
• Death in the Tuscan Hills (set in 1967)

Here are direct links at Amazon.com to Marco Vichi's Death and the Olive Grove:

Please visit the author's website. 

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

The Paradise of the Devils by Franco Di Mare

The Paradise of the Devils is a translation from Italian of the novel Il paradiso dei diavoli, about life in Naples, Italy.  The book begins with a Camorra hit-man who turns out to be the book's protagonist.  The author uses Homer's technique of pausing the action to recount a character's history, then clicking "play" to continue a scene, so prepare yourself for a poetic journey through this well-written book.

We meet plenty of other characters in the book, including a psychopathic killer, a middle-school teacher who lives with endless disappointments, a gang leader, a mother and her dreams for wealth through her twelve-year-old daughter, that daughter grown up and become a gangster's moll, a reporter.

I must say that the book feels less like a novel and more like a collection of short stories.  Some chapters could stand on their own, just fine, in a literary magazine.  Together, however, the stories take the shape of the story of a guilt-wracked, damaged young man, who becomes twisted by the lack of morals around him, and the easy proximity of everyone in Naples to crime.

All the way through the book there are ruminations on lots of interesting things, but mostly on Naples and her people.  The most scholarly rumination is this one:

In truth, the city's endemic problems had already been analyzed in depth by an American sociologist in the 1950s, Marco recalled, groping in his mind for the guy's name.  Yes, it was Edward Banfield, who had coined the idea of "amoral familism" and lack of "social capital," whereby in southern Italy--and Naples was its undisputed capital--illegality was virtually the norm.  The interpretation of the law was "highly flexible," so to speak.  According to Banfield, the only rules people respected were those that did not contrast with the interest of one's own family, group, or clan.  Anything and everything else was totally disregarded.  That was the way things were, and no one marveled a tit.  In this fertile ground, the evil weeds of criminality inevitably took root.  People would look the other way or steer clear if they saw something amiss.  The basic philosophy of life seemed to be:  What do I care?  It's none of my business.

We learn about privileged children through the eyes of their poorly paid, demoralized teacher:

...apathetic, spoiled rich kids who had no interest in philosophy, history, books, or culture of any kind. ...their sole basic needs consisted of smartphones, texting, MP3 players, teenage crushes, automobiles, and designer clothes. ...

Their entire lives were guaranteed from the day they were born, each one with a place ready for them either in some professional firm or in the family business.

We learn a lot about Neapolitans:

"the Neapolitan path to Stoicism"

"duality of Neapolitan people's souls"

"austerity and rigor on one side, and pompousness...on the other"

We learn about Naples:

Naples natural beauty, its position on the beautiful Bay of Naples was something "to forget the many things wrong with the city".

...the city of Naples was like this:  wonderful from a distance, but when seen close up, it was fragmentary, indefinable, and coarse. ...the "paradise of the devils" that Benedetto Croce cited in a famous essay that her old professor of literature quoted all the time...

...the crowds, the chaos, the market stalls, the beggars, the parades of the unemployed, the general hubbub of the ancient decumanus, the muggers and thugs, the piles of rubbish, the loafers, and the worst traffic in Europe.

Never been to Naples?  Here is a two minute video postcard of Naples:

Sometimes the inclusion of the characters' trips through Naples read like a car's navigation system, but they do add local flavor to the story.  There is lots of local flavor in this story, with detailed digressions about neighborhoods and local gangs and famous characters.

The author skillfully moves his characters back and forth in time, revealing things about them at his own speed, and for his own reasons.  You just have to hang on and go for the ride.  It is an interesting ride, full of insights into human nature, and especially insights into the complex, damaged Naples and her Neapolitans.

From the book's description:

Naples is a city with two sides: the sun-kissed coast and the shadows of the back alleys. It is at once beautiful and full of suffering. It is the paradise of the devils.

This novel by Franco Di Mare is a mournful hymn of love for Naples and the compelling story of its eternal contradictions. A vivid and dreadful portrait of the city, setting the stage for a diverse cast of characters, from Carmine—a man with a double soul, a refined intellectual and a hit-man—to the men who take part in a bloody showdown.  The reporters, the housewives, the killers are all in some way tainted by the evil that inhabits the most beautiful gulf in the world.

The Paradise of the Devils is published by Open Road Media.

Open Road Integrated Media is a digital publisher and multimedia content company. Open Road creates connections between authors and their audiences by marketing its ebooks through a new proprietary online platform, which uses premium video content and social media. Open Road has published ebooks from legendary authors including William Styron, Pat Conroy, Jack Higgins, and Virginia Hamilton, and has launched new e-stars like Mary Glickman. 

Direct link to the author's page at ORM

Here is a direct link to The Paradise of the Devils at Amazon.com:

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Death of a Showgirl by Tobias Jones

The subtitle of Death of a Showgirl is What is the price of fame?  The quest for "showgirl" or vedetta celebrity by young women in Italy is the subject of this hard-boiled, private-investigator novel.  A "showgirl" in sexist Italy is nothing more than skimpily-clad eye-candy on the TV screen, while the sleazy male hosts of the TV shows do all the talking, gawking and groping.

The author of Death of a Showgirl is familiar with Italy's criminal underbelly, having researched and written Italy-set true crime novels.  His P.I. novels mine the same ground.  Death of a Showgirl is clearly inspired by the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Belusconi's salacious, sexist and stupid misadventures and crimes during his climb from property developer to TV producer, TV mogul, media mogul, on to political party leader and prime-minister. 

A classic hard-boiled P.I. story, Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe, a creation of Raymond Chandler

The protagonist of Death of a Showgirl and The Castagnetti Series, of which Death of a Showgirl is book number three, is called "Casta" for short.  Casta sees people for who they are, with all their foibles, flaws and sins exposed to Casta's sharp eyes, but his ingrained compassion is only shared with a few of the people he encounters.  As is usual for a hard-boiled P.I. novel, Casta is our first-person narrator, telling us the story of his latest case, with snappy, sarcastic humor, and punchy descriptions. 

Here is Casta arriving at the house of his newest client:

"What's taken you so long?" he scowled.

"I had to do my makeup."

He looked at my unshaven face without smiling.

Like the Los Angeles based P.I. of yore, Casta moves among the creeps who populate the under-belly of society, while working for the well-off, who live behind walls and titles and big bank accounts.  Casta also deals with those in the middle of society, often good-hearted people who have been ground down by society or evil people.

James Garner as Marlowe

Death of a Showgirl is set in and around Rome, Italy.  Casta bemoans the "crowded chaos of the capital".  As he says:

The noise of horns and radios and shouted insults was part of the soundtrack of the capital...  

Here is Casta reflecting while driving along an old Roman road:

There were sheep huddling in the shade of ancient Roman walls, weeds growing out of long-lost settlements.  Rome always felt this way to me:  a place where the grandeur of an empire had slipped away centuries ago, but one that still retained hints of that lost magnificence.  ...it was a constant reminder of past glories and present inadequacies.

Never been to Rome?  Here is a two-minute video postcard to give you an idea of the book's setting:

Actually, the vices of modern-day Romans would not have scandalized the Ancient Romans.  They may have actually inspired some modern Romans in their disgusting, misogynistic and criminal endeavors, especially the ones involved in the modern-day version of the Roman Circus, television.

The television entertainment industry in Italy is tightly linked to Italian politicians:  the directors of the three national television channels, RAI1, RAI2, RAI3, are appointed by the three top political parties after each national election.

Media-mogul-turned-politician-turned-national-embarrassment Silvio Berlusconi used his media empire to launch himself into politics and to keep himself there.  And Berlusconi hand-picked TV showgirls from his TV stations for seats in Parliament, in exchange for who-knows-what.

 

 

Paul Newman as Ross Macdonald's hard-boiled P.I. Harper in The Drowning Pool

It is no big secret that sexual favors are demanded of young women seeking employment as on-air talent, and yet every year there are thousands upon thousands of young women who offer themselves into that prostitution.  So more beautiful young women could be exploited for longer, the Miss Italia competition was actually shaped into a year-long television program, with the young women performing demeaning stunts in demeaning outfits each week.  

The author says about these young women:

They didn't seem to realize they were no more than steaks served up to portly politicians who controlled the personnel departments of the TV stations.  They thought they were entering the world of glamour but were actually descending the steps of degradation.

The iconic P.I. look that fits rough Casta

The author's Berlusconi-inspired character in Death of a Showgirl, a "stocky man in a double-breasted suit", is wonderfully drawn.  His probable reaction to dirt from his past coming out is pure "Berlusconi":

My guess is that he'll laugh it off.  He might not even understand what he's done wrong, what he's been accused of.  And if he does, he'll simply offer the man a large sum of money and be done with it.

The macho creepiness of Italy's male elite is superbly drawn by the author, showing the easy excuses they make for their self-indulgent infidelities, and the sense of belonging to a virtual, cool, all-male club with sexual privileges.  Anyone who criticizes them is just "not cool".

Here is the media-mogul-turned-politician talking about his critics:

They put my success down to dishonesty because it makes their failure easier to live with.  It happens all the time.  It reassures them that their jinxed lives are down to their saintly morality, rather than their dull, boring, predictable, bourgeois provincialism.

Death of a Showgirl follows the hard-boiled P.I. genre:  the private-dick gets a case, he follows leads, he interviews a mixed bunch of characters, he discovers facts and links between the players, he gets roughed up now and then, he uncovers the dirt and solves the case but not always to his clients' satisfaction but always to his own satisfaction.

What drives Casta?  He says he is driven by a need to reunite families.  He lost his parents when he was a pre-teen.

...I had seen too many children lose their families and vice versa.  And since I'd never had a family, I was on a mission to put others back together.  ...

This job was my way of putting the pieces back together, of trying to reunite families before it was too late.

 

 

Humphrey Bogart as Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade

The book was written in British English, but features an all-Italian cast of characters, and an Italian protagonist.  Some Italian words are included in the book, presumably to add to the fiction that the story is happening in Italy in Italian.  I found the Italian words distracting, partly because they were not italicized, as they should have been, and partly because they acted to draw me out of the story, to remind me that I was reading an "Italian" story in English.

An Italophile loves the history and rich culture of Italy, not the modern-day government that runs the country, or the weak economy and jobs market, or the lack of equality and respect for Italy's women.  If you can handle the truth, and you enjoy traditional hard-boiled P.I. novels, then you should enjoy Death of a Showgirl and the other books in The Castagnetti Series.

 

 

Books in The Castagnetti Series:

1. The Salati Case
2. White Death 
3. Death of a Showgirl

Death of a Showgirl is published by Faber & Faber.

Faber and Faber remains one of the last of the great independent publishing houses in London.  With the great depth of its backlist, featuring books by no fewer than twelve Nobel Laureates and six Booker Prize-winners, a thriving frontlist and ever-growing e-book list...

Faber and Faber remains one of the last of the great independent publishing houses in London. With the great depth of its backlist, featuring books by no fewer than twelve Nobel Laureates and six Booker Prize-winners, a thriving frontlist and ever-growing e-book list, - See more at: http://www.faber.co.uk/about/#sthash.Ce2C98ON.dpuf

Faber and Faber remains one of the last of the great independent publishing houses in London. With the great depth of its backlist, featuring books by no fewer than twelve Nobel Laureates and six Booker Prize-winners, a thriving frontlist and ever-growing e-book list, - See more at: http://www.faber.co.uk/about/#sthash.Ce2C98ON.dpuf

Direct link to author's page at F&F

Death of a Showgirl is available from Amazon.com in various formats.  Here are direct links to them:

Here are direct links to the Tobias Jones books at Amazon.com, fiction and non-fiction:

Please visit the author's website.


This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.