Death in August by Marco Vichi

First Line: Inspector Bordelli entered his office at eight o'clock in the morning after an almost sleepless night, spent tossing and turning between sweat-soaked sheets.

It's the summer of 1963 in Florence, Italy, and Inspector Bordelli is one of the few detectives left in the city. If it weren't for the relentless heat, he'd really enjoy the nearly deserted streets. As it is, he is looking forward to a holiday at the beach once everyone else has returned to town.

The only thing to keep him from routine paperwork is the death of a wealthy elderly woman. Her companion says the woman was murdered. The postmortem is in favor of natural causes. However, once Bordelli begins looking around inside the dead woman's villa and taking a look at the woman's family, he very quickly sees that things just don't add up. With all this heat, Bordelli can't sleep anyway, so he may as well solve a murder.

When I saw that Death in August was translated by Stephen Sartarelli, I could have done a happy dance. Sartarelli is a superb translator, and I love the work he's done with Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano mysteries. Then I began to read. I was hooked by page three and the description of Bordelli's meeting with his boss. There is wit and humor in this book, and I loved every bit of it.

Inspector Bordelli is fifty-three, and although he's still looking for Miss Right, he's beginning to wonder if he's too old for her. His investigation is not told in a linear fashion either, but interspersed with his dreams, his childhood memories, and memories of fighting in World War II.

Although the heat could be considered a character in this book, I was rather disappointed that its setting of Florence didn't have a more commanding presence. However, the most charming scene in Death in August is the dinner party Bordelli has for his friends. Not only is it a celebration of wonderful food and drink, but quite an eclectic-- and happy-- gathering of people as well.

The investigation quickly proves that Bordelli doesn't have to figure out WHOdunnit, but HOW they done it, and the way he does so is rather ingenious and certainly entertaining. Piras, the young policeman who helps him solve the crime, brightens things up for Bordelli, especially when the inspector finds out he is the son of his old war buddy. 

Although there are some similarities to Camilleri's Montalbano mysteries, I did not find this book to be a pale imitation. In its own way Death in August is every bit as good as its Sicilian counterpart, and I certainly look forward to reading more.

Death in August by Marco Vichi

Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartarelli

ISBN: 9781444712216

Hodder and Stoughton © 2011

Paperback, 240 pages

Historical Mystery/Police Procedural

#1 Inspector Bordelli mystery

Rating: A

Source: Paperback Swap 

Tahoe Blue Fire by Todd Borg

First Line: The big rotary snowblower was parked in the dark at the side of the road where the shoulder had been cleared of snow.

When private investigator Owen McKenna gets a call for help from a woman who's afraid for her life, McKenna thinks she's more Looney Tunes than anything else, but she's paid in advance for his services, so he goes to see her.

The woman is shot before McKenna can reach her.

When he begins investigating, he's led to a couple of missing persons reports, but nothing's making sense. The only thing that ties two of the people together is an interest in Italian Renaissance art.

Then another connection pops up: a man who was a football star twenty years ago, but Adam Simms is in the last stages of Traumatic Brain Injury, and McKenna is doubtful he can be of much help. Regardless of his usefulness, Simms may be the target of a very devious killer. McKenna wants him protected while he's trying to make sense of a very puzzling case.

When I read one of Todd Borg's Owen McKenna books, I simply cannot turn the pages fast enough. There's always a first-class mystery to solve, new things to learn, plenty of adrenaline-pumping action to survive, and-- most of all-- a wonderful cast of characters to catch up with. 

As usual, the gorgeous scenery of Lake Tahoe can be considered a character in Tahoe Blue Fire, and like most characters it can sometimes be high maintenance, which is why readers get to learn a bit about the machines that remove all the snow that falls in the area, and how they get rid of the huge piles of white stuff so we can drive safely on the roads. However, if snow and machinery aren't your things, you can also pick up information on computer forensics, Traumatic Brain Injury, service dogs, and history-- from the Medicis in Italy to local Tahoe history when Frank Sinatra was in town.

The story is yet another good one, although one segment that takes place away from Lake Tahoe made the story's momentum falter a bit, and the curious behavior of one of the characters clued me in to the identity of the killer too soon for my liking. Tiny blips on my radar however, because Tahoe Blue Fire is packed with goodies.

As usual, Borg's wonderful cast of characters provide the majority of those goodies. Owen McKenna has a great supporting cast: two buddies on the local police and sheriff's departments; a love interest with a brilliant mind of her own; and Owen's constant companion, a Harlequin Great Dane named Spot who wears a faux diamond stud in one ear. Spot is fantastic-- one of my favorite dogs in literature. Spot is a well-trained dog that helps out whenever and wherever he can, but the thing I love about him most is that Spot isn't Super Dog; he doesn't go around spelling "Help!" in the mashed potatoes. Mostly he wags a lot. And watches you eat. Spot's a typical dog that makes a difference each and every day, just like a lot of other dogs.

When it comes to characterization, Borg knows that the best kind is most often found in small but telling details. It's the fact that McKenna gets himself into a lot of dangerous situations, yet he doesn't carry a gun. It's the fact that he has a key to his girlfriend's house, but only uses it when she tells him to. It's the fact that McKenna feels guilty because he didn't take his client more seriously and she was killed as a result. And it's the fact that he takes the time to show a young K-9 officer how to care for his stressed-out dog. The entire Owen McKenna series is filled with moments-- facts-- like this, and as a result, this reader has come to care deeply for these characters.

If you see that this is the thirteenth book in the series, and you just don't feel like investing in something this long, I hope you'll reconsider. You'll find that Tahoe Blue Fire reads very well as a standalone. If you're the type of reader (like me) who loves good stories and characters who feel like a part of your family, you'll be glad you've found a series with some meat on its bones. Either way you look at it, this series is one of my favorites, and I recommend it highly. 
 

Tahoe Blue Fire by Todd Borg

ISBN: 9781931296236
Thriller Press © 2015
Paperback, 351 pages

Private Investigator, #13 Owen McKenna mystery
Rating: A
Source: the author 

Death of an Englishman by Magdalen Nabb

First Line: The small office was in darkness, except where the red night lamp stood by the telephone on the desk, and the white kid gloves lying on top of a sheaf of papers within the patch of light were flushed pink.

A respectable retired Englishman has been shot and killed in his apartment on the Via Maggio near the Santa Trinita bridge in Florence, Italy. It is a few days before Christmas, and flu is making the rounds of the Florence caribinieri. Marshal Salvatore Guaraccia has quite an assignment ahead of him: recover from the flu that has him experiencing fever dreams while flat on his back in bed, solve this case, and get on the train to Sicily so he can celebrate Christmas with his family. Fortunately (or perhaps not), Scotland Yard has dispatched two  officers to assist in the investigation.

At first, I was somewhat stunned when I realized that most of the action in this book would take place while the marshal-- the main character-- is flat on his back in bed. But then I fell under the spell of Magdalen Nabb's Florence. This slim volume contains an entire feast of the streets and neighborhoods of the city, of the Italian way of life, of the keen observation of people's behavior and habits, that I willingly let Guaraccia recuperate while I did my own observing and putting clues together.

Part of the magic of this book is having two Scotland Yard detectives working with the Italian caribinieri. There is the difficulty of not speaking each other's language as well as the differences in investigative procedures. While I watched this group of policemen slowly piece together facts that show the deceased Englishman wasn't as respectable as they first thought, I put together what I'd observed. Nabb is masterful at using Conan Doyle's Holmes and Watson Method: the Italian and British police being Watson, the marshal being Holmes, and the reader somewhere between the two.

First published in 1981, Death of an Englishman, isn't a foray into the dazzling science of forensics. This is a mystery for those who like to observe, ponder and arrive at their own conclusions. How close your deductions are to the author's solution depends on how well you've observed and pondered a disparate group of people all living in the same old apartment building.  A batty old Englishwoman operating her own museum, a husband who always seems to be coming home during the wee hours of the morning, a high-spirited little girl (who reminded me more than a little of "The Ransom of Red Chief"), and several more should provide readers with everything they need to know... but it's not until Marshal Salvatore Guaraccia has recuperated sufficiently that everything falls into place. He proves that there's scarcely a thing that can escape his eagle eye.

The setting, the characters, the intricately constructed plot with its touches of humor and compassion... Death of an Englishman is a leisurely-paced book that I enjoyed even more than I'd anticipated. I look forward to returning to Florence and observing the marshal in the future.  

Death of an Englishman by Magdalen Nabb

ISBN: 9781616952990

Soho Crime © 2013

Originally published 1981

Paperback, 224 pages

Police Procedural, #1 Salvatore Guaraccia mystery

Rating: A

Source: Paperback Swap