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.

Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen

This novel has elements of family drama, bloody horror, mystery and history.  Half of the novel is set in the past, during WWII in Venice, Italy.  What starts the story off is the purchase of a piece of hand-written sheet music for a waltz, in a store in Rome, Italy, by the musician protagonist, Julia, in the present day.  Her present day life becomes altered, and she is certain the sheet music is to blame.

We then switch to the past, and meet the man who will ultimately compose the musical piece.  Lorenzo lives in Venice, Italy, and he is Jewish.  The reader sees the progressive exclusion of Italy's Jews through ever more horrible laws.  Boiling a frog comes to mind, with the local residents adapting to each progressive step, without seeing that it would lead to the Holocaust for Italy's Jews.

This is a novel written with a specific purpose in mind, to document the fate of almost every last members of Venice's Jewish community during World War Two, death.  The author provides an Afterword that explains her intentions, and that she wished to recall the suffering of people at the hands of really evil people, and to honor the good people too.  Another reason was to show the power of music to inspire and to change lives.

The novel alternates the narrative between the point of view of Julia in the present, and Lorenzo in the past, using the present tense for the modern day events, and the past tense for the historical events.  Present tense use is very popular these days since it gives an immediacy to a story.  I feel I must give a warning about a scene when a cat is killed in a horrific way, just off scene.

As Julia's horrors progress in the present, Lorenzo's horrors progress in the past.  If you dislike horrors, this is not the book for you!  I found the book creepy, sad, very depressing, and the plot a bit too thin.  The plot felt more like a construction made solely for the purpose of writing a Holocaust novel. 

Personally, I prefer to read non-fiction about that time, since the truth of that era is more twisted and horrible than any fiction writer can ever possibly imagine.  But if you enjoy Holocaust fiction, and Tess Gerritsen's writing style and penchant for horror, then you should enjoy this book.  If you happen to be a musician, too, you will enjoy it even more.

From the book's description:

Tess Gerritsen, the New York Times bestselling author of the Rizzoli & Isles series, now gives us a gripping stand-alone thriller.

In a shadowy antiques shop in Rome, Julia Ansdell happens upon a curious piece of music—the Incendio waltz—and is immediately entranced by its unusual composition. The mournful minor key and complex feverish arpeggios appear to dance with a strange life of their own.

Back in Boston, when Julia plays the notes for the first time, the music has a terrifying and unexplainable effect on her young daughter, who seems violently transformed.

Determined to track down the music score's origins, Julia travels to Venice—and uncovers a dark secret that not only dates back to the Second World War, but also directly involves a dangerously powerful family who will stop at nothing to keep Julia from bringing the truth to light.

Here is a direct link to the book's Amazon.com page.  Beware of different covers for this same book, so you don't accidentally order the book twice!

Please visit the author's website.