Michael Pearce's cozy crime novel (2009)
captures the period of Naples just prior to the First World War (1913): ‘Things
spilled out from the workshops: wood from the carpenters and turners, sheets of
cork newly cut from the trees on the hills above the city, great sweeps of
sailcloth spreading right across the street, blocking off the view;
half-completed rush mats, wickerwork baskets and chairs still being worked on,
their spokes pointing up into the air, low wooden racks filled with pipes in
various stages of progress.’ (p110)
There’s plenty of light
humour, too: ‘The people he tried speaking to in the street were nearly
incomprehensible, especially if, as was often the case, their reply came from a
mouth practically without teeth.’ (p111)
This is one of several books
in the ‘A Dead Man in…’ series concerning the Special Branch police officer
Seymour working for the Foreign Office. This time he’s called to Naples as a
consular official called Scampion has been murdered in the street. Much of the
plot revolves around the new craze of bicycling and an upcoming race, which
might involve the Camorra, the secret society, political chicanery, gambling
and thwarted love.
The characters are well
drawn, mostly revealed through dialogue, but there’s little in the way of ‘show’,
it’s mostly ‘tell’ by the characters’ speech. Seymour and his fiancée Chantale
do not involve the reader, sadly, though they have their uses to join the dots
to arrive at the (fairly obvious) solution to the mystery of Scampion’s demise.
Editorial comments
Very few typos, but here’s one:
‘Where they children of my
people…’ – 'Where' should be 'Were'. (p102)
Inconsistency:
Betting slip: ‘The one you
found in your brother’s trousers?’ (p104) Unfortunately, the slip was found in
her brother’s shorts.
Characters beginning with the
same initial (writers should try to avoid this to avert confusion!):
Giorgio and Giuseppi. (There
are plenty of Italian male names to choose from, after all!)
Scampion and Seymour.
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