These new essays comprise a critical analysis of present-day crime fiction and nonfiction works set in Italy (all of which are available in English). The writers discussed range from Donna Leon and Michael Dibdin to Leonardo Sciascia and Andrea Camilleri. Essays also deal with nonfiction by Roberto Saviano and Douglas Preston. An emerging theme is the corruption of Italian police and judiciary officials and the frustration of officers and politicians trying to work ethically within a flawed system. Many of the works discussed show the struggle of the honest characters to find at least a limited justice for the victims.

Patricia Prandini Buckler, is an assistant professor of English and an adjunct assistant professor of women’s and gender studies at Indiana University Northwest in Gary, as well as a professor emerita of English at Purdue University. She lives in Valparaiso, Indiana.

Edited by Patricia Prandini Buckler
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 208
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2014
pISBN: 978-0-7864-5864-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1469-4
Imprint: McFarland

Preface  1
Introduction  3
Giallo and Noir: Crime Writing in Italy (Patricia Prandini Buckler) 7
Novels About Mysteries = Mystery Novels? The Years of Lead in Contemporary Italian Literature (Nicole Welgen) 27
Gomorrah, Scarface and the Italian Camorra: Roberto Saviano’s Journey into Naples’s Organized Crime (Alice Bendinelli) 46
The Monster of Florence: A Triptych (Patricia Prandini Buckler) 62
Inspector Montalbano on Stage: The Theatrics of Andrea Camilleri (Thomas A. Van) 85
For There Were Eunuchs: A Venetian Castrato as Sleuth (Marcia J. Songer) 115
Mozart on Her Mind, Venice in Her Heart, Mysteries in Her Pen: Donna Leon’s Commissario Guido Brunetti Series (Marilyn Rye) 133
Michael Dibdin’s Peripatetic and Puzzling Aurelio Zen (Patricia Prandini Buckler) 165
About the Contributors  191
Index  193

• Finalist, 2015 Silver Falchion Award—Killer Nashville