A new Italian detective has stepped onto the crime scene for English-language readers.
Inspector Cataldo is already well-known to Italian crime-fiction fans, having featured in 10 novels by Luigi Guicciardi.
Now a new independent publisher, Hersilia Press, has translated and published Cataldo’s first case for the UK market, Inspector Cataldo’s Criminal Summer.
Hersilia is a small outfit, launched by Ilaria Meliconi, an Italian based in Oxfordshire. It is dedicated to introducing the best Italian crime fiction to English readers. So quite a lot is riding on the impression made by this first import.
Stranger From the Past
It is a slim book, easy to read but psychologically twisting. During the height of summer in a quiet holiday town in the Italian Apennines, the lives of an old group of acquaintances – friends is too strong a term here – is riven by the appearance of a stranger from their past.
One of the group – which includes scheming academics from the University of Bologna, businessmen, various wives and a priest – is found dead, apparently a suicide.
Insp Cataldo finally appears in chapter four when the body of Giulio is discovered, shot in the head. His wife, Miriam, reveals that he was rattled by the appearance of an old newspaper article shoved in their letterbox.
Italian Crime Fiction
It is during his polite, patient encounters with the dead man’s circle that Cataldo uncovers rivalries, mutual envies and secrets going back to an 18-year-old crime during which a man died and lot of money disappeared.
Guicciardi does a good job of capturing the atmosphere of a pore-prickling summer resort, the slow pace of life in a place where everybody knows their neighbour’s business. Like many Italian crime stories, this is less concerned with car chases and gun fights, and more about relationships, personal tensions and thwarted lives.
As for Cataldo, he has his own sadness. Originally from Catania, Sicily, his decision to further his career on the mainland in the Modena area has caused a painful split with his lover, Tina, who decides to stay behind. He also has to leave his mother and the wonderful cuisine of his native region. This being an Italian story, the reader is left in no doubt how much of a wrench it is to forgo Catania’s cannoli, sorbets and cassata.
Criminal Summer Is Compelling
Physically, Cataldo is an untypical Italian, however, being a tall, blond Southerner with no trace of dialect in his speech.
As he probes to discover whether Giulio’s killer was his wife, his lover, his parasitic university boss, the stranger in town or maybe somebody else altogether, the reader can enjoy Cataldo’s slightly Columbo-esque style of questioning. It is disingenuous, polite, but often reveals the inspector to be one step ahead of those he encounters.
Criminal Summer is unlikely to become a blockbuster, but the series could be a slow-burning success. This opener is a compelling tale and the strength of the series is apparently in seeing how Cataldo and his deputy, Muliere, develop.
Hersilia Press plans to continue publishing the series. Fans of psychological crime stories and an Italian setting have some tasty adventures ahead.
- Inspector Cataldo's Criminal Summer, published by Hersilia Press, ISBN 978-0-9563796-0-3
Robin Jarossi - London-based journalist and editor specialising in TV, sport and books. I was the editor of 'Cable Guide' and have worked at 'Radio ...
