De Luca, a police officer recently transferred from the Political Police, is called to investigate the murder of a wealthy man with strong political connections during the last years of the Second World War. His political connections mean that De Luca and his colleague, Pugliese, are frequently ... Read review
Advantages: Interesting look at Italy during the Second World War Disadvantages: Not much to the plot
De Luca, a police officer recently transferred from the Political Police, is called to investigate the murder of a wealthy man with strong political connections during the last years of the Second World War. His political connections mean that De Luca and his colleague, Pugliese, are frequently thwarted from doing their job - even their own superiors want them to carry out the investigation in a certain direction to avoid upsetting the 'wrong' people. ... ...to find out the truth, especially when the caretaker of the building in which the murder occured and his wife are both brutally silenced. In the highly sensitive political climate, can De Luca get to the right people before anyone else dies? And what is the connection between the murdered man and the large amount of drugs found in his flat? And with the end of the War in site, what does the future hold for De Luca himself?
De Luca, a police officer recently transferred from the Political Police, is called to investigate the murder of a wealthy man with strong political connections during the last years of the Second World War. His political connections mean that De Luca and his colleague, Pugliese, are frequently thwarted from doing their job - even their own superiors want them to carry out the investigation in a certain direction to avoid upsetting the 'wrong' people.
Despite this, De Luca is determined to find out the truth, especially when the caretaker of the building in which the murder occured and his wife are both brutally silenced. In the highly sensitive political climate, can De Luca get to the right people before anyone else dies? And what is the connection between the murdered man and the large amount of drugs found in his flat? And with the end of the War in site, what does the future hold for De Luca himself?
I have previously read Almost Blue by Carlo Lucarelli, which I thought was an excellent book, so I was delighted to find that more of his work has now been translated into English. This is apparently the first of a trilogy of books featuring De Luca against the background of Fascist Italy and its efforts to rediscover itself as a country. I was interested to read in a forward by the author that the books are based on the life of a police officer from that period, interviewed by Lucarelli for a thesis he was writing.
As a character, De Luca does not particularly stand out in any way. He is a stubborn man who likes to do a good job and because of that, is often forced to go against his superiors' wishes in order to solve a case. However, that is just about all we do find out about him - there is nothing else in the book to suggest his age or looks or even whether he has a family (although he does have a brief affair with one of the witnesses in the book). He has great difficulty sleeping and so we presume he is carrying some kind of baggage, but quite what it is, we never find out. The book is very short, which does partially explain the lack of characterisation, but I do think that the author would have written a better book if there was more about the main characters in it. We find out even less about his colleague Pugliesi.
I think what really let this book down is the plot. All the way through, I felt as if the author was still writing his thesis. He made a great deal of effort to set the background for the plot, particularly with regard to the political situation and the fact that everything was deeply confusing. This was very interesting for me - I study the police and am always pleased to combine fact with fiction - but I think for many readers it could be a bit too much. It certainly does detract from the plot, which for a piece of crime fiction is very straightforward, and while not dull, could have been a lot better. I found that a few days after having read the book, I had forgotten most of the plot, and had to re-read it in order to write this review. The ending seemed to be very hurried - we had only just found out the truth when the book ended, which seemed as if the author had suddenly decided he was bored.
The language is very snappy and to the point, which I liked. Chapters are divided into easy to read chunks, perfect for reading on the commute into work. The fact that it has been translated is not a hindrance for the reader either - I didn't really even notice it had been translated, unlike some books in which the language doesn't appear to be natural in English.
Having thoroughly enjoyed Almost Blue, I was slightly disappointed with this book. I probably will look out for the other two in the series, but more because of my interest in the policing of the time rather than I enjoyed the character and plot of the book. I am still going to recommend the book, but really only for fans of crime fiction, particularly those that have an interest in European crime fiction.
The book is available from play.com for £6.99. Published by Europa Editions (USA), it has just 128 pages. ISBN: 9781933372150
