A collection of Italian crime fiction that doesn’t rely on that crutch of the ol’ Mafia is a welcome breath of fresh air. All nine stories in CRIMINI: THE BITTER LEMON BOOK OF ITALIAN CRIME FICTION stand proudly next to each other, without any of them being filler.
Edited by Giancarlo De Cataldo, this is also a great sampler of Italian talent who hopefully now will gain a wider audience in the States. There is a wide variety of storytelling within these stories, each bringing forth some fresh ideas. Of course, you get a healthy dose of cops and robbers, with Massimo Carlotto’s “Death of an Informer” being a standout.
In that story, a cop investigates the death of an informer killed by the Croatian mafia, with the cop being of the renegade variety, determined to track down the killers using any source possible. This also has a great kicker of an ending – one that could easily have been played out on the big screen.
Starting off the collection is a story that would make some of the pulp greats smile: “You Are My Treasure Chest” by Niccolo Ammaniti and Antonio Manzini, which deals with a plastic surgeon on the verge of being arrested for drugs and where he decides to hide his last bag of cocaine. Black humor is in full force with this one and proves this is not your run-of-the-mill crime anthology.
Andrea Camilleri’s “A Series of Misunderstandings” is a story that starts with some comic effect, only leading to some truly tragic results, with a telephone worker named Bruno who thinks it’s funny to take a call for another party while he is on a date with a woman he just started seeing. This story takes a very dark turn, but is told so well in a short time, you really feel for this doomed couple.
Then there is the tale of a kidnapping that just goes wrong with De Cataldo’s “The Boy Who Was Kidnapped by the Christmas Fairy.” Even though it ends on a sweet note, the tale is chilling to the bone. Finishing up the collection, you have two stories both set in the world of entertainment, with “The Last Gag” by Sanrone Dazieri getting special mention. It deals with a former comic who has seen the better days of career gone, now investigating the death of his former partner. It will give new meaning to the term “stage mother.”
CRIMINI has its little indiosyncracies, mainly dealing with the translation and the use of British colloquialisms. But these can just be glossed over, as this is truly a great collection of stories that puts some of those Akashic Books city-based NOIR anthologies to shame. –Bruce Grossman
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