The Venetian Redemption by Philip Gwynne Jones

This year’s a Venice year. By which I mean, I have a Venice novel out instead of a Sicilian novel. And so, welcome to The Venetian Redemption a title which, I think, works in a number of ways.

This is the ninth novel to feature Nathan Sutherland, British Honorary Consul in Venice and occasional and accidental crime fighter. The usual cast are back as well – Federica brings the smarts, Dario brings his encyclopaedic knowledge of Progressive Rock, and Gramsci – the stroppy Marxist cat – is there to bring his bad attitude. I’m not quite sure how we got to nine novels – it doesn’t seem all that long ago since The Venetian Game came out, but it seems that’s almost ten years ago. And, along the way, Nathan’s adventures kind of became my job, which I’m very grateful for.

But, back to the current novel. In some ways, this is a tying together of a number of themes from the previous two – The Venetian Candidate and The Venetian Sanctuary. I’m not going to say they form a trilogy, but there’s a kind of a consistent theme throughout. 

Back in The Venetian Candidate, I introduced Giuseppe Meneghini as a recurring nemesis for Nathan. A shady businessman with designs on politics, but someone who hasn’t quite crossed the line into downright serious criminality. Or, at least, nothing that could be proved. I enjoyed writing the scenes between him and Nathan so much, I brought him back for The Venetian Sanctuary. 

Now, I like a good Bond/Blofeld confrontation as much as anyone, but this, I thought, was as far as I could go with the character. And that was a shame. I enjoyed writing him, but I wasn’t sure there was anywhere left to develop. 

Unless – what if there was something that would force the two of them to work together? I kept thinking (warning : the Cloister Bell is about to sound a geek alert!) about the cliffhanger to the third episode of the Doctor Who episode Logopolis, where the Doctor and the Master shake hands. Now that was something I really wanted to try my hand at. 

I also needed to develop Meneghini’s back story. I gave him a little romance which I never expected to happen - it was just a story that came about during the writing and I enjoyed it so much I started to wonder if I’d missed my calling as a romance author. (As a side note, my previous editor once suggested I make a side track into romantasy. “You’re Welsh, aren’t you? Stick a dragon in it!”. I’m still not quite sure if she was serious).

There were also things I had to dig into from personal experience. Serious things. About getting older. And about loss. I lost both my mum and dad within the space of eighteen months. Quite simply, this wasn’t something I could ignore. Of course, all those feelings about loss and about rootlessness were going to come out on the page.

Redemption, then? Sympathy for the Devil, if you like? Perhaps, but the title also alludes to the great Venetian festival of Redentore, or, if you prefer, the Feast of the Most Holy Redeemer. It was originally established in thanksgiving for Venice’s deliverance from the great plague of 1576, a plague which killed perhaps a third of the city’s population. Today, it remains – obstinately, and against the odds – as perhaps the most Venetian of festivals. People line the Giudecca canal on both sides, a pontoon bridge is built across the canal linking the area of the Zattere with Andrea Palladio’s great church of Redentore, much eating and drinking is done and fireworks light up the sky (following which everyone will shake their heads sadly, and comment that they were better last year).

But there’s more than that. Redentore was also the occasion of Pink Floyd’s famous – or, rather, infamous – Night of Wonders concert. Two hundred thousand spectators crammed alongside the side of the San Marco Basin to watch the Floyd performing on a floating platform in the lagoon. The amount of rubbish left behind required the intervention of the Italian army to clean up. This, surely, was something I couldn’t ignore and also gave me an opportunity to bring back Nathan’s friend Lucia Frigo, guitarist with the greatest (and possibly only) Black Metal band in Venice.

So, there we are – we have a mixture of the usual nonsense and, I think, something just a little bit more serious in the mix as well. Venice is there in all its beauty and shadowy mystery, there’s a quick visit to the Dolomites and to the cemetery of San Michele, and there might just be a bit of eating and drinking as well.

I hope you enjoy it!

The Venetian Redemption by Philip Gwynne Jones Out now in hardback, eBook and Audio, £22 (Constable). 

The city of Venice is alive with celebrations for Redentore, the most spectacular festival of the year. The streets are lined with revellers eating and drinking, and boats travel along the canals into the bacino of San Marco in anticipation of the firework display. It's going to be a night to remember, and all the more so for Nathan Sutherland and his wife Federica, who have been invited to an exclusive party in the company of the British Ambassador. The festivities take a turn, however, when Nathan suddenly finds himself struggling for breath and is rushed to hospital. Tests show he has all the symptoms of aconite poisoning, a toxin derived from the deadly wolfsbane plant. An unfortunate accident? Or a deliberate attempt to poison him? As Nathan investigates, he discovers many guests might just have had a motive for murder . . .

More information about Phillip Gwynne Jones and his books can be found on his website. He can also be found on Facebook, On X @PGJonesVenice on Instagram @Philipgwynnejones

Bernard O'Keeffe on Taking the Biscuit

 

Bernard O’Keeffe on the inspirations for his first DI Garibaldi novel ‘The Final Round’ 

The first thing that came was the name - Garibaldi. As in the biscuit and as in the key figure in the unification of Italy. I was familiar with the historical figure from distant memories of History O Level and with the biscuit from my enthusiastic consumption of them when I was a kid - those currant-filled thin oblongs we used to call ‘squashed flies’. 

But it was more recent events that led me to name my detective after the hero of Italian unification and the Peek Frean’s treat. When my wife was researching her family tree she came across a relative born in the East End in 1861. He was called Joseph Baker – a very English name in what the records showed to be a very English family. What was surprising, though, was his full name – Joseph Giuseppe Garibaldi Baker. 

Why were Joseph Baker’s middle names those of the Italian nationalist hero? The discovery led to excited speculation that there might be Italian ancestors in the family, maybe even a mysterious Italian lover. The truth may have turned out to be less romantic, but it was equally fascinating. 

Giuseppe Garibaldi was a very big thing in Victorian England. When he landed in Southampton in1864 the country was seized by what would now be described as Garibaldi-mania. The upper classes vied to host him, the London working class turned out in their thousands to greet him. A romantic hero, a freedom fighter and a champion of the underdog, Garibaldi had universal appeal, inspiring veneration and almost cult-like adoration. People adorned their walls and mantelpieces with pictures of him. His image appeared on plates, cups and tankards. 

Such enthusiasm for the Italian hero might explain why my wife’s ancestors, and maybe many others, chose to give their son the middle names Giuseppe Garibaldi. It’s certainly one of the reasons why I chose to give his name to my new-born literary detective. 

Another big influence on the creation of Garibaldi was Inspector Montalbano. When I came upon Andrea Camilleri’s Sicilian detective I fell in love with him. And when I learned that Camilleri didn’t publish the first Montalbano novel until well into his sixties I loved him even more. I’d always wanted to write a crime novel so now that I had stopped teaching what was there to stop me? And that name. Montalbano. There was something about it – four syllables, and with that pleasing stress on the third. Just like Garibaldi. 

My detective wouldn’t live in Sicily. He’d be located much closer to home – in Barnes – a quiet London ‘village’ beside the Thames between Hammersmith and Richmond where I have lived for nearly thirty years. He’d have a few of my traits (a love of books and country music, an inability to drive, and a long-suffering attachment to QPR) and he would, like me, be half-Italian by descent. His complicated personal life, though, would be a far cry from my own.

Equally influential on the creation of Garbaldi was Inspector Morse. I read Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle in my youth, but it was Colin Dexter’s Oxford - based novels that really ignited my interest in crime fiction. Garibaldi may have as little in common with Morse as he does with Montalbano (though they do share a certain grumpy cerebrality) but the Oxford inspector made a big impact, as did his creator. 

When I was teaching near Oxford I invited Colin Dexter to speak to Sixth Formers about Morse and detective fiction. A former teacher himself, he knew how to hook an audience. He introduced his talk by saying that it would contain three deliberate mistakes and that whoever identified them at the end would win a prize. It was a surefire way to grab attention and one that I would have emulated in my own teaching career were it not for the fact that I generally made more than three mistakes in my lessons and none of them were deliberate.

Like Dexter, I’m a big crossword fan but, unlike Dexter, I’m not very good at them. Whereas he was a seven-times UK crossword champion I do a lap of honour if I manage to complete half the Guardian cryptic. Dexter was often asked whether there was a link between a love of crossword puzzles and the urge to write detective fiction but Dexter attributed the urge to something more general – ‘this business of wanting to know’. It’s something I share with him, together with his desire to set his novels in a place he knows well and his emphasis on character and plot.

DI Garibaldi may not have much in common with the historical figure whose name he shares. Nor may he have much in common with the fictional detectives that inspired him. But I still like to see him as the bastard son of Morse and Montalbano.

And that’s an idea that really takes the biscuit.

The Final Round by Bernard O’Keeffe is published by Muswell Press (£12.99) Out Now

On the morning after Boat Race Day, a man's body is found in a nature reserve beside the Thames. He has been viciously stabbed, his tongue cut out, and an Oxford college scarf stuffed in his mouth. The body is identified as that of Nick Bellamy, last seen at the charity quiz organised by his Oxford contemporary, the popular newsreader Melissa Matthews. Enter DI Garibaldi, whose first task is to look into Bellamy's contemporaries from Balfour College. In particular, the surprise 'final round' of questions at this year's charity quiz in which guests were invited to guess whether allegations about Melissa Matthews and her Oxford friends are true. These allegations range from plagiarism and shoplifting to sextortion and murder..

More information can be found on his website.

You can follow him on Twitter @BernardOKeeffe1

Photograph©BernardO'Keeffe

Gianrico Carofiglio in conversation with Sheldon Zenner

 

Gianrico Carofiglio in conversation with Sheldon Zenner, a former federal prosecutor and a defense attorney in the United States. They will discuss Carofiglio's new novel as well as his career path from anti-Mafia prosecutor to full-time writer.

Join them for a stimulating and lively conversation as they cross the globe – Gianrico Carofiglio will join us from Italy and Sheldon Zenner from Chicago – to discuss The Measure of Time, Carofiglio's inspiration and writing life, and an inside look at the intricacies of the Italian justice system from two brilliant legal minds.

it’s going to be hosted virtually in NYC but UK residents can watch it here in the UK from 6pm onwards on 6th May. It’s being co-hosted by the Italia Cultural Institutes on both sides of the pond.

The event is free by registration is required through this link.

The Measure of Time, translated by Howard Curtis, is the latest book in Carfofiglio's Guido Guerrieri crime series (just published in spring 2021 by Bitter Lemon Press).

One spring afternoon, defence attorney Guerrieri is confronted with an unexpected spectre from his past. In her youth, Lorenza had been a beautiful and unpredictable girl with dazzling charm. A changed woman faces him in his office that day. The ensuing years have ravaged her appearance and embittered her mind. As if that weren't enough, her son Jacopo, a small-time delinquent, stands convicted of the first-degree murder of a local drug dealer. Her trial lawyer has died, so, for the appeal, she turns to Guerrieri as her last hope. Guido is not convinced of the innocence of Lorenza's son, nor does he have fond memories of the way their relationship ended two decades earlier. Nevertheless, he accepts the case; perhaps to pay a melancholy homage to the ghosts of his youth. His old friend Carmelo Tancredi, a retired police inspector, and his girlfriend, the charming investigator Annapaola Doria are once again by his side. A masterful, compassionate novel, striking a balance between a straightforward trial story -some say the purest distillation of human experience - and the sad notes of time as it passes and exhausts itself.

Scritture Migranti - Call for Papers

 

Narratives of Mobility: The Transnational and Transculutral Turn 

in European Crime Fiction

Edited by Maurizio Ascari, Silvia Baroni, Sara Casoli

This issue of Scritture migranti (15/2021) aims to investigate a phenomenon that is highly characteristic of contemporary crime fiction on a global level: the representation and thematization of multiculturalism, international mobility, and transcultural identities. Thanks to its transnational circulation and its aptitude to highlight social and political issues throughout the lens of the investigation, crime fiction offers a privileged perspective through which to observe the encounters and the conflicts associated with social and cultural mobility. Moreover, the critical reflections on the connections between social norms and otherness expressed in crime fiction encourage also to take into consideration the mobility of the genre itself in terms of genre-blending.

In particular, we aim at analysing authors and characters whose transnational and multicultural perspective epitomizes an alienating gaze questioning the social norms of hegemonic groups. Describing mobility across national borders and cultural contexts, these figures suggest alternative readings of the society in which they live, and thus reflect on notions such as “cultural identity”, “integration”, and “transnationality”.

On that standpoint, possible case studies include the works of “expatriate writers” (expat), who write their stories in a different language from that spoken by their characters and/or set their stories in a cultural background (that is, a country) where they currently live or have resided, but which is not their country, which is not the background where they belong by birth, language, culture, education and the like. Examples range from the Italian mysteries written by authors of British, American or German origin such as Magdalene Nabb, Donna Leon, Michael Dibdin, or Veit Heinechen, to those written by authors with a migratory background and a non-native cultural origin that have influenced their work, like Lakhdar Belaïd, Sascha Arango, Nadine Buranaseda, Tonino Benacquisto, Susanne Ayoub, Rosa Ribas, Vladimir Hernàndez and more.

Other possible case studies may emphasise the construction of transnational characters. Contemporary European crime fiction features more and more detectives living and operating in multicultural and/or transnational contexts, like Arne Dahl’s Op-Cop Group, Jacob Arjouni’s private detective Kemal Kayankaya and Deputy Commissioner Luca Who, created by Andrea Ciotti. By thematizing the transcultural contexts in which they live within the diegetic universe, these characters allow us to explore the stratified and multicultural fabric of European society.

This issue of Scritture migranti will welcome proposals exploring the ways in which contemporary European crime fiction writers (from 1989) and characters are recast in the role of cultural mediators from a variety of theoretical and critical perspectives, which may include, among others: narratological analyses focused on the aesthetic structure and thematic contents of the texts; studies on the transnational circulation and translation of crime novels; inquiries on the transmedia outputs of the crime narratives dealing with cultural and national mobility issues.

Topics may include (but are not limited to):

• The transnational circulation of the works of transcultural writers, in the more general frame of the production, distribution and reception of the crime genre across the European cultural market;

• The construction of an European identity and its borders in relation to the narrative space in which the criminal and investigative plots are set and to the mobility of the characters;

• How the construction of transcultural characters calls into question racial, cultural and social stereotypes in the representation of narrative as well as socio-cultural mobility in a national context;

• The critical and deconstructive potential of the crime genre in bringing out and highlight forms of collective repression connected to socio-cultural mobility and transnational contexts;

• The comparison between the definitions and the notions of “expatriate” and “migrant” in relation to specific crime fiction writers and works.

Founded in 2007, Scritture migranti is the first Italian peer-reviewed journal with a strong commitment in international research on Migrant literature.

Scritture migrant is an annual journal that publishes articles in English, French and Italian.

Proposals– title and abstract of 250 words, author’s affiliation and contact (email), personal information – will have to be sent by May 31, 2021 to redazione.scritturemigranti@unibo.it. Acceptance of the proposals will be notified by June 15, 2021.

Final papers of 6000-7000 words will be due no later than October 31, 2021, with publication anticipated in January 2022.

Contact email:

redazione.scritturemigranti@unibo.it

maurizio.ascari@unibo.it

sara.casoli2@unibo.it

silvia.baroni9@unibo.it

Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies - Call for Papers

 

 Giallo! The Long History of Italian Television Crime Drama

Special issue edited by Luca Barra (Università di Bologna) and Valentina Re (Link Campus, Rome)

 Most of the Italian television drama able to circulate internationally belongs to the multifaceted crime genre, both in some sparse examples from the past and in growing contemporary productions (from premium channels and digital platforms to public service and commercial broadcasters). However, for many decades, only a limited range of titles has been given scholarly attention, drawing a useful yet partial account of an otherwise dense and multi-layered history. Moreover, exceptions have often been studied far more than the most conventional crime series in the ‘giallo’ spectrum: most police procedurals are deemed too formulaic, or too popular, to be distinguished. Therefore, this special issue intends to overcome these limits by focusing on the historical evolution of the crime genre inside the development of Italian television, from the early stages to the latest mainstream and niche successes, and by highlighting the many crime titles that have become familiar to large Italian audiences.

 Through the Italian crime drama and its evolution over the decades, an original history of Italian television and media can be easily outlined, where ‘giallo’ would often mark changes of pace, innovations, successes and failures. Already in the first twenty years of the so-called paleo-television and monopoly period, crime drama was facilitating the Italian ‘sceneggiato’’s turn towards a medium-long seriality: the investigations of ‘tenente’ Sheridan (from 1959 to 1972, first with Giallo club. Invito al poliziesco and later with Ritorna il tenente Sheridan, Sheridan squadra omicidi and Le donne del tenente Sheridan) or Le inchieste del commissario Maigret (1964-1972), starring Gino Cervi; or Nero Wolfe (1969-1971). Further on, it was crime drama that marked the transition—even the lexical transition—from ‘sceneggiato’ to ‘fiction’, with the great success of La Piovra (1984-2001). It was crime television that punctuated the golden age of public service fiction in the late Nineties: Il maresciallo Rocca (1996-2008), Il Commissario Montalbano (1999-), La squadra (2000-2007) and the reassuring Don Matteo (2000-). It was crime drama that underlined the innovations of commercial networks: Distretto di polizia (2000- 2012), RIS. Delitti imperfetti (2005-2009) and Squadra antimafia. Palermo oggi (2009-2016). Once again, it was the crime genre that marked the arrival of premium original productions, first with Sky – Quo vadis, baby? (2008), Romanzo criminale. La serie (2008-2010) and Gomorra. La serie (2014-) – and later with Netflix – Suburra. La serie (2017-2020). Lastly, crime is one of the main battlegrounds for the return of Rai and Mediaset competition, innovating genres and aesthetics and establishing global partnerships, with titles like Non uccidere (2015-2018), Rocco Schiavone (2016-), La porta rossa (2016-), I bastardi di Pizzofalcone (2017-), Maltese (2017), Il Cacciatore (2018) and Il Processo (2019). In Italy, as in many other countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, the entire nation is reflected in the history of its TV crime drama, mixing the reverberations of a changing society – which experiences new tensions and conflicts in terms of economic insecurity, political uncertainty, family and gender norms – with formal experiments and the shared imageries of a long-lasting, rich and always new genre.

 The editors encourage submissions that cover, but are not limited to, the following subjects and topics:

 1. The genre and its polymorphism. How has Italian TV, across its entire history, interpreted the many subgenres of ‘giallo’ (noir, police procedural, legal drama, detective story, crime, etc.)? How are these subgenres related to different periods, specific formats, channels and platforms?

 2. The familiar hybridizations with comedy and melodrama. What are the strategies to ‘balance’ the roughness of crime in the Italian tradition? How have these interacted with the crime genre?

 3. The less familiar hybridizations with other genres. How have popular genres like fantasy, the supernatural, gothic, science fiction and thriller impacted the ‘giallo’ traditions and innovations?

4. The geography of Italian crime. How have the places represented in the Italian ‘giallo’ changed in television history (center vs. peripheries; urban vs. rural stories)? How have locations affected the narrative developments, the production and the national and global circulation of these series?

 5. Literary adaptations and original productions. How has the frequent adaptation of literary investigators (i.e. Maigret, Nero Wolfe, Montalbano, etc.) influenced the narratives, characters, production and promotion strategies of Italian TV dramas? How do fully-original stories differ?

6. The Italian ‘giallo’ as a transmedial phenomenon. How have crime dramas hybridized languages, figures, characters and topics from different media, such as radio, comics and cinema?

7. Mainstream dramas and quality ‘giallo’. How has ‘quality’ or ‘complex’ TV impacted Italian crime by featuring ambiguous heroes and antiheroes, multiple storylines, unconventional locations and a sophisticated visual style? And what is the role of more traditional, mass-oriented crime?

8. From amateur to professional female investigators. How have crime dramas, from Laura Storm to Thou Shalt Not Kill’s Valeria Ferro, shown an increasingly strong interest in female detectives? How does this help us understand, question and renegotiate evolving gender and genre norms?

9. The reality and fiction of Italian ‘giallo’. How have Italian crime dramas reinterpreted or hinted at the news of ‘cronaca nera’, in a complex entanglement between unsolved cases and judiciary truths? In which ways has the recent explosion of serial true crime also impacted fictional series?

10. The international circulation of Italian crime. After the first success of La Piovra, in recent years more and more national productions have met with foreign acclaim. What are the elements that facilitate this international circulation, and what are the effects on narratives and productions?

11. Italian ‘giallo’ and the past: national history and national memory. How has the Italian ‘giallo’ tradition been proven capable of turning our gaze on the past and addressing unresolved social and political conflict? How do ‘gialli’ contribute to a shared national memory of mysteries and traumas?

12. Italian ‘giallo’ and the present: social tensions and moral dilemmas. From financial issues to terrorism, from immigration to the ties between politics, corruption and organized crime, how has the contemporary crime drama contributed to narrating conflict and fear in our societies?

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is 30 April. Interested contributors should send the following materials to the guest editors Luca Barra, Università di Bologna (luca.barraATunibo.it) and Valentina Re, Link Campus, Rome (v.reATunilink.it): a 500 word abstract in English of original and unpublished articles, outlining the topic, approach and theoretical bases with a relevant bibliography and filmography; and  a 200 word biographical note. The accepted proposals will be notified by 31 May; completed articles should be sent by 15 October for peer-review; authors will be notified of the results of the peer-review by 15 December 2021.

 

Books to Look Forward to from Europa Editions

July 2017

Glass Souls is by Maurizio de Giovanni.  In the abyss of a profound personal crisis, Commissario Ricciardi feels unable to open himself up to life. He has refused the love of both Enrica and Livia and the friendship of his partner, Maione. Contentment for Ricciardi proves as elusive as clues to the latest crime he has been asked to investigate.  The beautiful, haughty Bianca, countess of Roccaspina, pleads with Ricciardi to investigate a homicide that was officially closed months ago. In the tense, charged atmosphere of 1930s Italy, where Benito Mussolini and his fascist thugs monitor the police closely, an unauthorized investigation is grounds for immediate dismissal and possible criminal charges. But Ricciardi's thirst for justice cannot be sated.  A tightly plotted historical noir novel, this eighth instalment in the Commissario Ricciardi series is a gripping meditation on revenge and justice in which each character's soul reveals itself to be made of glass.

August 2017

In Ostia, a depressed coastal settlement twenty miles from the powerful and corrupt city of Rome, a mighty local crime family, the Mafia, corrupt politicians, and new rabid criminal elements battle each other for a billion-dollar payoff. During the final days of Silvio Berlusconi's reign, a massive development proposal that will turn Ostia into a gambling paradise, a Las Vegas on the Mediterranean, is winding its way through the Italian legislature thanks to the sponsorship of politicians in the pay of crime syndicates with vested interests. In short, it's business as usual in the Italian capital. But a vicious gang of local thugs loyal to nobody but themselves is insisting on a bigger cut than agreed upon. They argue their case quite convincingly, but the Mafia and their political puppets aren't likely to back down without a fight.  Suburra is by Carlo Bonini and Giancarlo De Cataldo and is soon to be a Netflix original series.

October 2017

Ferocity is by Nicola Lagioia and is the Winner of the 2015 Strega Prize. Southern Italy, the 1980s. On a hot summer's night under a full moon, far from the outlying neighborhoods of a southern Italian metropolis, Clara stumbles naked, dazed, and bloodied down a major highway. When she dies no-one is able to say exactly how or why, but her brother cannot free himself from her memory or from the questions surrounding her death. The more he learns about her life and death, the more he uncovers the moral decay at the core of his family's ascent to social prominence.

 

Venice 1118 AD.  In a medieval Venice undone by devastating famine and excessive, orgiastic Carnival festivities of all kinds, the protagonists of The Apothecary's Shop chase a dream of rebirth, the eternal dream of defeating death.  The young Costanza, of the noble Grimani family, has disappeared. The family scribe, Edgardo, promises to return the girl to her family, who themselves may not be above suspicion. Doctors, apothecaries, undertakers, Eastern merchants, farmers: everyone seems to be involved in the girl's disappearance, even African slave traders.  Abella, Edgardo's ambiguous ally and the only female doctor in Venice, introduces him into secrets and occult practices of medicine. Through her, Edgardo discovers Sabbatai's Apothecary, where remedies and concoctions of all kinds are prepared and clues to Costanza's disappearance may lie.  The Apothecary's Shop is by Roberto Tiraboschi.

January 2018

The Sacco Gang is by Andrea Camilleri.  Raffadali, province of Agrigento, 1920s. The Sacco brothers are free men with strong ideas about socialism and the State. Their lives change radically one morning when their father, Luigi Sacco, receives an anonymous letter from the local Mafia demanding protection money and is the victim of a robbery attempt. Luigi tells the police of the extortion letters he received, but the police don't know what to do: no one in the village has ever dared denounce the Mafia before. From that moment on, the Sacco brothers must defend themselves: from the Mafia and the forces of order, from their collaborators, traitors, and from the village's leaders, as they are assailed by murder attempts, false accusations, and false testimony.  Through the tale of the Sacco brothers and what happens to the town of Raffadali, The Sacco Gang makes clear that not only does the mafia kill people, but it can also condition and irreparably devastate people's lives.

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Books to look forward to John Murray

January 2017

Auntie Poldi can think of no finer place to wait for death than Sicily. All she asks is a sea view, fine wine (and plenty of it), and her family close around. When death instead takes her handsome young friend Valentino - and under mysterious circumstances at that - Poldi will not take it lying down. Perhaps it's in her blood (her father was a detective chief inspector); perhaps it's a diverting excuse to spend more time with men in uniform; or perhaps it's just the promise she makes to Valentino while holding his poor dead hand. But Auntie Poldi's hunting instincts have never felt more alive. Justice must be served - if it's the last thing she does ... Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions is by Mario Giordano.

February 2017

 

Spook Street is by Mick Herron.  Never outlive your ability to survive a fight. Twenty years retired, David Cartwright can still spot when the stoats are on his trail. Radioactive secrets and unfinished business go with the territory on Spook Street: he's always known there would be an accounting. And he's not as defenceless as they might think. Jackson Lamb worked with Cartwright back in the day. He knows better than most that this is no vulnerable old man. 'Nasty old spook with blood on his hands' would be a more accurate description. 'The old bastard' has raised his grandson with a head full of guts and glory. But far from joining the myths and legends of Spook Street, River Cartwright is consigned to Lamb's team of pen-pushing no-hopers at Slough House. So it's Lamb they call to identify the body when Cartwright's panic button raises the alarm at Service HQ. And Lamb who will do whatever he thinks necessary, to protect an agent in peril ...

March 2017

William Hoffer - handsome, refined, a little cold perhaps - is an established figure in London society. But Hoffer has secrets. He is vague about his Midwestern origins. The counsel he offers a Russian billionaire may extend to murkier topics than art investments. Then there is his Kensington flat, which is only rented, and the broader question of his money, which is running out. When a ghost from his past in Mexico surfaces, Hoffer is forced to revive brutal instincts for self-preservation ...  Hoffer is by Tim Glencross

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The Story Behind Cry Wolf

When a husband and wife write together, readers are always intrigued by the practicalities of the creative process. ‘How do you do it?’ they ask wide-eyed, imagining the nightmare of trying to get anything done with their own spouse or partner. Daniela and I have always written together as Michael Gregorio. We can’t explain how we do it, but we manage to do it without too much attrition, aiming to produce a story that will entertain us and whoever reads the book.

We published four crime novels set in nineteenth century Prussia – Critique of Criminal Reason, Days of Atonement, A Visible Darkness and Unholy Awakening* – which feature the investigations of a young and inexperienced magistrate named Hanno Stiffeniis. ‘Who invented Hanno?’ readers ask, and we really cannot say. He just appeared in the kitchen one day while we were drinking tea and dunking biscuits. We lived with Hanno on a daily basis for over five years, and then decided that Hanno had been a welcome guest, but that it was time for him – and us – to move on.

The last of the Hanno Stiffeniis series hit US bookstores in September 2010. Since then, we’ve received a number of concerned letters from readers. Have we taken a break, broken the mould, or broken up and gone our separate ways?

Question one: taking a break?

Writers never take breaks. They may take a few days off for a book festival or a promotional gig, but they never take extended breaks. Writing is an obsessive-compulsive activity. If I am deprived of my desk and computer for more than two days, I feel totally lost, and Daniela is just the same. In any case, though we weren’t writing about Hanno Stiffeniis, we had a lot to be getting on with. We had the builders working in the house for seven months as we restored a part of it. We had to charm them and feed them into doing a perfect job, and while we were watching (and sometimes helping) them, we had an idea for a novelette about three apprentices and a Renaissance painter rebuilding a ruined church in the mountains – we have mountains outside our window – after the big earthquake of 1523. Oh yeah, we have earthquakes in Umbria, too. There were six minor quakes just the other day. The story, which came out of it, Your Money Or Your Life (Paper Planes, 2013), was published as a Y/A short for English readers in Europe only, and the US rights are still available, if anyone in the States is interested. We have written another Y/A story, a contemporary tale of mayhem and wilful destruction set in the Amazonian jungle, provisionally entitled The Sacred Stream, which Paper Planes will publish in Europe in autumn 2015. So, we’ve been working hard.

Question two: had we broken the mould?

That is, had we moved away from historical crime fiction and into the Y/A genre?

There’s a story there, too. It was a complicated period in our lives, when we were heavily involved in local issues. We were Nimbies, protesting against modern developments in Spoleto, the ancient town where we live in central Italy. Following a series of protest marches and sit-ins, I was sued for slander, while five young kids were arrested as ‘terrorists.’ It was a set-up, of course. The only way the local authorities could defeat the protest movement was to frighten the meeker protestors and intimidate the braver souls. In the end, the kids were found innocent, and the case against me was dismissed. Daniela and I felt morally bound to write our version of those events, a tale of corruption and collusion, as speculators moved in to exploit the rebuilding of our beautiful old town after the earth­quake of 1997, which destroyed frescoes by Cimabue and Giotto in Assisi, just twenty miles from where we live, and damaged our cathedral.

We published Boschi & Bossoli (Ambiente-VerdeNero, 2012) in Italy only, reserving all other rights for ourselves.

Okay, now we’re getting close to the real story behind CRY WOLF, our new novel, which will be published by Severn House in the UK in December 2014, and in the USA on 1st April 2015. (Love the US date, by the way!)  We retained the English-language rights because we saw the opportunity to invent an entirely different story for the international thriller market, using the same regional setting, but character-based and cutting out the local political and moral undertones. Could we write a violent, fast-paced mystery set in a rural area as the Mafia closes in on the millions of euros that the Italian government and the European Community has pledged in emergency relief funding? We took a minor character from Boschi & Bossoli, Sebastiano Cangio, turned him into a central figure, a park ranger who was born in Calabria (the home of the ’Ndrangheta mafia clans in the deep south of Italy), and we pitted Cangio against a fictional but believable mafia clan.

So, Mafia, violence, corruption. These are the themes of CRY WOLF.

Our old fans may be shocked.   We hope they will be, because it was time for us to turn over a new leaf.

Oh yes, the third question, and the one we haven’t answered yet: have we broken up, separated or divorced?

Well, we’re celebrating our thirty-fourth wedding anniversary with an ice-cold bottle of Moët this week, planning the next book in the series together. How’s that for an answer!

* Our Hanno Stiffeniis novels were published by Faber & Faber (UK) and St Martins Press (USA). Many thanks to our editors, Walter Donohue and Peter Joseph. We had great fun writing them!

Crime Fiction in Translation Workshop & Panel Discussion, Europe House

MORE CRIMES ACROSS THE CONTINENT!
14.30-20.30 on 21st March at Europe House, London SW1.

The European Commission Representation in the UK in partnership with City University London is holding a symposium on continental crime writing and its translation into English.

Come to an introductory lecture followed by workshops with authors and translators in which context and culture, vocabulary and street talk will be part of the discussion, and find out more!
Workshops with:

Writers           Pia Juul (Denmark); Marcelo Fois (Italy); Dominique Manotti (France) Domingo Villar (Spain)
Translators    Silvester Mazzarella (Italian); Ros Schwartz (French);  Amanda Hopkinson (Spanish) and Pia Juul (Danish).

This will be followed by a panel discussion, with plenty of time for questions and comments. From 19.00, there will be a reception offered by the European Commission and the chance to talk informally with our guests.

Programme
14.30 pm         Registration
15.00 pm         Introduction by Prof. Amanda Hopkinson and
                          Dr Karen Seago
15:30 pm         Parallel translation workshops from Danish, French,
                          Italian and Spanish into English
16.30 pm         Feedback session
17.00 pm         Tea and coffee
17.30 pm         Panel discussion and concluding comments
19.00 pm         Reception

Entrance to this event is free but places are limited. To reserve a place please email Joanna Zywotko at joanna.zywotko@ext.ec.europa.eu

Please, specify which part you wish to register for:
Starting at 14:30
Workshop Danish-English + Panel + Reception  
Workshop French-English + Panel + Reception  
Workshop Italian-English + Panel + Reception  
Workshop Spanish-English + Panel + Reception  
or
Starting at 17:30
Panel and Reception   

Location:
European Commission Representation UK
Europe House
32 Smith Square
London SW1P 3EU
(nearest Tube station: Westminster, 5-minute walk)

With thanks for their support to the French and Italian Institutes; and the Spanish and Danish Embassies.


Dr Karen Seago
Programme Director MA Translating Popular Culture
Department of Culture and Creative Industries
School of Arts and Social Sciences
City University
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
+44(0)20 7040 8253
Room: College Building ALG07
The Journal of Specialised Translation
The Dryden Translation Competition