I Wish Upon An Infinite Book Well

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Death in August by Marco Vichi

I am pleased to discover another Italian author who based his novels in the city of Florence not unlike the Michele Ferrara series by Michele Giuttari which I enjoy reading immensely.


Death in August (2011) is the first Inspector Bordelli mystery set in Florence in the year 1963.  According to the blurb, Inspector Bordelli spends his days on routine work, and his nights tormented by the heat and mosquitoes.  Suddenly, one night, a telephone call gives him a new sense of purpose:  the suspected death of a wealthy Signora.  Bordelli rushes to her hilltop villa, and picks the locks.  The old woman is lying on her bed - apparently killed by an asthma attack, though her medicine has been left untouched.  Thus, the inspector begins a murder investigation.  It is obvious that the motive of the murder is money and that the obvious suspects are the wealthy lady's money-hungry nephews.  The police know they did it and the nephews know the police have no proof simply because their alibis are watertight.  At this point, how do the police uncover the mechanism of the murder?

If you enjoy Michele Giuttari's Inspector Michele Ferrara series, you will also enjoy this classic Tuscan police procedural with an inspector as delightful and down-to-earth as the city itself.


Death in August was originally published in Italian as Il Commissario Bordelli and translated into the English by Stephen Sartarelli.


About the author:  Marco Vichi was born in Florence in 1957.  The author of eleven novels and two collections of short stories, he has also edited crime anthologies, written screenplays, music lyrics and for radio, written for Italian newspapers and magazines, and collaborated on and directed various projects for humanitarian causes.

There are four novels - one of which won the Scerbanenco, Rieti, Camaiore and Azzeccagarbugli prices in Italy - and two short stories featuring Inspector Bordelli.  Marco Vichi lives in the Chianti region of Tuscany.

Find out more at www.marcovichi.it

About the translator:  Stephen Sartarelli, born in Ohio, is a poet and an award-winning translator.  He is also the author of three books of poetry.  He has translated the Inspector Montalbano detective novels written by Andrea Camilleri and lives in France.

Rating:  5/5

Irrefutable Fact for All Readers

I'm looking at book cupcakes for the first time!

It is a marvel what you can find on the internet nowadays.  Anyone who loves both reading and munching on cupcakes will love the above and if you live in west London or Norwich, you can have them right in front of you and eat it too.  Do go over to Victoria's Kitchen for a visual feast:  there are bespoke cupcakes, cakes and cookies.  My mouth waters.

Bodywork by Sara Paretsky

I have been reading Paretsky's long-standing V I Warshawski series on and off for a couple of years now.  The series is about a female private investigator who tackles social injustices like racial tensions (Hardball, 2009) or immigrant families (Fire Sale, 2005) set in the windy city of Chicago.

In Body Work (2010), the fourteenth in the series, Paretsky touched on the ills of money and how one's life can affect those in and/or far beyond our own circles, sometimes with disastrous consequences, although there is almost always a rainbow at the end of the tunnel.  A young painter was shot in a nightclub and the police assumed the shooter was a soldier who had flown into a rage at the nightclub.  The soldier's family hired V I Warshawski to find out what happened as they did not believe that their son could kill a woman and that is when a chain of ugly truths was laid bare.  There is a very good story in this novel and one can deduce a moral or two or three from it.  As usual, Paretsky never disappoints.

It can be read on its own but I would recommend that readers check out Paretsky's earlier V I Warshawski's novels as well.

Sara Paretsky talks about Body Work:



For more information on the author and her other books, visit www.saraparetsky.com

Rating:  5/5

The Black Rose of Florence by Michele Giuttari

The Black Rose of Florence (published 2010, Italy) is Giuttari's fifth and latest instalment in the Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara series.  This time, Ferrara has to suss out Satan-worshipping murderers and get to grips with esoteric societies.  I hate to finish the book and sincerely hope there is going to be a new book out next year.  Highly recommended.

(From the hardback)  A strikingly beautiful young woman is found dead in her Florence apartment.  She lies on her bed, naked, a black rose between her legs.  And the murders do not stop there:  shortly afterwards, a woman is burned to death in a church, and a man is shot on the Ponte Vecchio.

Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara is all too familiar with the dark side of Florence.  But he has never seen anything of this magnitude before - he is up against a mysterious, powerful enemy who would do anything to hide his identity, and manages to control events at every turn.

As more violent deaths occur, Ferrara has to face the most dangerous investigation in his entire career and must confront deadly secrets from his own past...

About Michele Giuttari:  The author was born in 1950 in the province of Messina.  He was head of the Florence Police Force from 1995 to 2003, where he was responsible for reopening the notorious serial killer case, the Monster of Florence, and jailing several key Mafia figures.  He is now a special adviser to the interior minister in Rome, with a remit to monitor Mafia activity.  More on his website at www.michelegiuttari.com

The Black Rose of Florentine was translated from the Italian into the English by Curtis Howard.

Rating:  5/5

Lesson 101

A Prison Diary: Volume III, Heaven by Jeffrey Archer

I have been to Hell, then Purgatory and now I find myself in Heaven.

The final volume of Lord Jeffrey Archer's prison diaries covers the period of his transfer from Wayland to his eventual release on parole in July 2003.  It includes a shocking account of the traumatic time he spent in the notorious Lincoln jail (23 days) and the events that led to his incarceration there - it also throws light on a system that is close to breaking point.

Told with humour, compassion and honesty, the final diary closes with a thought-provoking manifesto that should be applauded by the Establishment and prison population alike.

During his incarceration, Jeffrey Archer wrote three volumes of prison diaries:

Volume One - Belmarsh:  Hell
Volume Two - Wayland:  Purgatory
Volume Three - North Sea Camp:  Heaven

Not long after his release, Lord Archer wrote his first screenplay, Mallory:  Walking off the Map, ran the Flora London Marathon and worked on False Impression (2005).  Anyone interested in reading short prison stories based on Lord Archer's experiences in four different prisons during his incarceration can read Cat of Nine Tales (2005).

A Prison Diary:  Volume III, Heaven was first published in 2004 and covered the period of Lord Archer's incarceration from 15 October 2001 (Day 89) to 21 July 2003 (Day 729), when he was finally released and returned home.

Ironically, I find Volume Three the most fascinating and interesting account of Lord Archer's time in a D-category prison or what is known as an open prison, where there are no electric gates, no high walls nor razor wire.  A much recommended prison diary trilogy to get an insight into the bleak penal system in modern day Britain and of the drug culture in Britain.

Paradise by Liza Marklund

Catching up on Liza Marklund this rainy day in England.

A hurricane sweeps across southern Sweden leaving chaos in its wake.  Two men lie dead in Stockholm's Free Port, shot in the head at point-blank range.  A young woman runs for her life.

She finds refuge in Paradise, a foundation dedicated to people whose lives are in danger.

Newspaper sub-editor Annika Bengtzon is trying to piece her life together following the violent death of her fiance.  Covering the story of Paradise is the opening she needs to get her personal life and her career back on track.  But as she's about to find out, neither Paradise nor the young woman, Aida, are quite what they appear to be.  Annika's quest for the truth will force both her and Aida to confront their troubled pasts - and ultimately Annika will be faced with the most difficult decision of her life.  (paperback)

Paradise (2000) aka Vanished is the first book in the Annika Bengtzon series set in Sweden.  It was translated from the Swedish to the English by Ingrid Eng-Rundlow.  This is a highly recommended Scandinavian series which presents a depth of characterisation, intelligence and readability that puts it on the highest pedestal.

More information on the author's website:  www.lizamarklund.com

Rating:  5/5

Stuttgart City Library, Stuttgart, Germany

Now I have a justified reason to visit Stuttgart.

Rijksmuseum Research Library, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Have you visited this library?  It will be my next stop.

Easy Money by Jens Lapidus

After a brilliant run of perusing non-fiction books in the past weeks, I thought I would go back to reading crime thrillers starting with a new Swedish bestseller, a dark and brutal account of the Stockholm underworld, by Jens Lapidus, an author new to me.  

Easy Money (2006) is a crude read not so much due to its translation per se but mainly because I am unfamiliar with the criminal argot used by a certain population of people.  I wonder whether reading the book in its original language would help my comprehension, that is, if I can read Swedish?  Somehow I doubt it.  

A new genre in Swedish literature - Swedish noir thriller - and again new to me, it is packed with an overflow of testosterone and written in a clipped and minimalistic way.  The writing style can be described as cine-animated and graphic, much like how movies are made in this day and age.  It is fast-paced and unrelenting.  

I have somewhat enjoyed the book but am unsure whether I would go on to read the other two in the trilogy.  Basically, it is a gangster thriller where the troika of drugs, violence and sex is the basis for the plot.  Nevertheless, what I am most impressed with is that Lapidus writes from his experiences as a criminal defence lawyer and there is a brilliant gritty story in Easy Money if you can read noir like water off a duck's back but it cannot deter from the fact that, truth be told, the book is too uncompromising and raw for me.  Notwithstanding, I also like the fact that the author wrote the book based on the baddies' point of view in which they are human and which adds a lot of character and panache to the storyline and lets the reader follow the story from the other side of the track so to speak.  There is nothing unrealistic about the novel and that is only half of the attraction.

Lapidus shows a lot of promise and potential as a new writer.  His writing style is distinct and unique.  I would keep an eye on him regardless of my initial doubts.  The faint-hearted would best avoid Lapidus' books.  Easy Money is not so easy after all!

About the author:  Jens Lapidus is a highly successful criminal defence lawyer.  His experiences with some of the country's most notorious criminals have made this debut novel - Easy Money (2006) - the fastest-selling and most talked about thriller in a decade.  Easy Money is part of the Stockholm noir trilogy.  The other two books in the trilogy are Never Fuck Up (2008) and Life Deluxe (2011).  He lives in Stockholm with his wife and two children.

About the translator:  Astri von Arbin Ahlander is a writer and translator from Stockholm, Sweden.  She cofounded the popular interview project The Days of Yore (www.thedaysofyore.com), which features interviews with successful artists about the time before their breakthroughs.  Easy Money is her first novel translation.

I will let Lapidus tell us what his book is about:

Easy Money was successfully adapted into a film and premiered in Sweden back in January 2010:



Rating:  4/5

Murder in Greenwich by Mark Fuhrman

"Are there two systems of justice in this country - one for the rich, and another for the rest of us?" - Mark Fuhrman

If you like reading about real-life homicide investigations with a huge focus on the investigation of clues, analysis of evidence, no-nonsense details and an expertly researched piece of work, ex-cop Mark Fuhrman is the author to look out for.

This case is unique in the sense that it involved a very prominent family, the Skakels, who had lived in Greenwich, Connecticut, for nearly fifty years.  The Skakels were among the wealthiest and high-powered families in town and had family connections with the Kennedys.  Could wealth, privilege and power buy a ticket out of jail and cover up pertinent facts in a murder case?  Well, more than likely it could but the truth will out.    

Even after a tough beginning where Fuhrman was stonewalled by the police in every sense of the word when he set out to get this book project started, I am glad he persevered and pushed on until his dedication and hard work paid off in the publication of Murder in Greenwich (1998), solely for the justice of Martha Moxley, a fifteen-year-old girl on the cusp of adulthood, who did not deserve such a tragic end.  Hats off to you, Mark Fuhrman.

I must mention the fact that Fuhrman's book was written before the conviction of Michael Skakel of the murder of Martha Moxley, thirty seven years after the murder, in 2002.  Briefly, by 1982, the Moxley murder investigation basically petered out.  The police did not determine the suspect was a Skakel until the reinvestigation of the case began in 1991 with a survey of the evidence, new revelations and new rounds of DNA testing.  As a matter of fact, Fuhrman's investigations in the writing of this book set the ball rolling in naming Skakel as the killer.  In the end, Skakel was sentenced to twenty years to life in prison and to this day, remains inside.  If you are looking for a book written after the conviction of Skakel, then the only one written about it is Len Levitt and Leonard Levitt's Conviction:  Solving the Moxley Murder:  A Reporter and A Detective's Twenty Year Search for Justice (2004).

Martha Moxley was bludgeoned with a golf club on the grounds of her family's exclusive Greenwich, Connecticut, estate on 30 October 1975.

Mark Fuhrman is the controversial former LAPD homicide detective and author of the national bestseller Murder in Brentwood (1997) about the O J Simpson trial.

I do not rate non-fiction books.

An overview of the murder with police/victim's family/author interviews: