Russell James has been named “the Godfather of Noir” by Ian Rankin. Russell writes crime novels - about criminals and victims, not the cozy procedural or whodunnit. He is the editor of Great British Fictional Detectives.
Carofiglio’s background as an anti-Mafia prosecutor in Bari is even more in evidence in this story, a court-room mystery in which series hero Guido Guerrieri (somewhat reluctantly) agrees to act as defence in the appeal against a murder conviction against the son of Carofiglio’s long ago ex-lover. First, could this son be his own? No, the affair was over by the time the young man would have been conceived. Second, will an appeal even be granted? The case is thin and the original verdict, even to Carofiglio, seems sound. Third, should he get involved in a case with such personal undertones?
Spoiler alert, he does. And it isn’t easy. The young man is a known petty criminal; he recently quarrelled with the victim over a drugs deal; and when picked up shortly after the murder he is found to have gunshot residue on his jacket. Oh, and Carofiglio doesn’t like him. Few people do. But please, asks his mother, Carofiglio’s ex-lover (who is now aged about sixty, so the affair’s not likely to be revived; it isn’t that sort of story).
You’ll learn plenty about Italian legal procedure and tricks of the legal trade, tricks also that you yourself can apply to winning arguments and persuading others to say what they didn’t mean to say (or not to say what you don’t want them to say) and, a growing trend in crime books of recent decades, some interesting Italian recipes you can try in your own kitchen at home.
Translated by Howard Curtis
