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Inspector Cataldo's Criminal Summer
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Product Description
Review
[...]
Something about the tone and style strikes me as being very European, turning away from the Anglo-American style of not only of recent authors writing in English about Italy but also some of the recent cinematic and hard-boiled crime writing in Italian. There are evidently a few other Italian crime writers making their English debuts in upcoming months, and Inspector Cataldo's first case augurs well for what is to follow. -- International Noir Fiction blog
[...] I am so pleased that I've been able to read this book, which certainly has an element of a Father Brown story and a dash of Hercule Poirot, but is distinctive in its own right. The author delivers on all counts: a tight plot which has a satisfying resolution despite a large number of motives and suspects - and indeed, additional murders; a lovely sense of place; and an appealing protagonist. Cataldo is a far cooler customer than his excitable fictional countryman Salvador Montalbano, but is intriguing in his philosophy of life and in his half-revealed past. According to the publisher's website, there are three more Inspector Cataldo novels yet to be translated, and I shall be first in the queue to read them when they are. Iain Halliday has done a lovely job with this book, and I hope he will continue to interpret the rest of the series for English-language readers.
--Petrona crime fiction blog
Something about the tone and style strikes me as being very European, turning away from the Anglo-American style of not only of recent authors writing in English about Italy but also some of the recent cinematic and hard-boiled crime writing in Italian. There are evidently a few other Italian crime writers making their English debuts in upcoming months, and Inspector Cataldo's first case augurs well for what is to follow. -- International Noir Fiction blog
[...] I am so pleased that I've been able to read this book, which certainly has an element of a Father Brown story and a dash of Hercule Poirot, but is distinctive in its own right. The author delivers on all counts: a tight plot which has a satisfying resolution despite a large number of motives and suspects - and indeed, additional murders; a lovely sense of place; and an appealing protagonist. Cataldo is a far cooler customer than his excitable fictional countryman Salvador Montalbano, but is intriguing in his philosophy of life and in his half-revealed past. According to the publisher's website, there are three more Inspector Cataldo novels yet to be translated, and I shall be first in the queue to read them when they are. Iain Halliday has done a lovely job with this book, and I hope he will continue to interpret the rest of the series for English-language readers.
--Petrona crime fiction blog
Product Description
In a quiet holiday town in the Italian Apennines, during a torrid summer, a string of gruesome deaths stirs up trouble in the local community. A suspected suicide which Inspector Cataldo is called in to investigate brings to the surface shady events belonging to the past and a mysterious foreigner shakes up the delicate social balance of a group of friends who have a lot to hide.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
translated by Iain Halliday
Cataldo is an introspective and self-contained man, quiet and committed to his job. He is called in when the body of Giulio Zoboli is found in his study, shot through the temple. The assumption is that the death is suicide, but Cataldo and his team soon discover that, as his wife Miriam suspects, Zoboli did not die a natural death.
Zoboli was an academic, working on literary analysis and criticism at Bologna University. He was frustrated because his mentor, Professor Luigi Ramondini, has taken his research findings to present at a conference, ostensibly on his behalf. Not only did Zoboli feel that Ramondini would take the credit that belongs to him, but also Zoboli did not have tenure. The Italian system of awarding university appointments via annual concorsi is famously corrupt and nepotistic. Zoboli was dependent on Ramondini for his chance at a permanent position, so did not insist on presenting the work himself, even though it would have greatly improved his chances of a professorship.
As well as this festering argument, a pale stranger had appeared in town a few days before, asking a hotel manager where Zoboli lives. Calling himself Alberto Ferraro, he followed Zoboli for a while, eventually going to his house and revealing himself to be a fellow academic wanting help with his research. Delighted at the prospect of discussing his work with a fellow-specialist, Zoboli agreed to meet Ferraro later that evening, half an hour before the fatal incident. When Miriam returned home from a couple of days away, she found her husband's body in the study and called the police, in the shape of Inspector Cataldo.
I loved this novel, which was written in 1999 but is only just translated and published in England by the small, independent publisher Hersilia Press. I am so pleased that I've been able to read this book, which certainly has an element of a Father Brown story and a dash of Hercule Poirot, but is distinctive in its own right. The author delivers on all counts: a tight plot which has a satisfying resolution despite a large number of motives and suspects - and indeed, additional murders; a lovely sense of place; and an appealing protagonist. Cataldo is a far cooler customer than his excitable fictional countryman Salvador Montalbano, but is intriguing in his philosophy of life and in his half-revealed past. According to the publisher's website, there are three more Inspector Cataldo novels yet to be translated, and I shall be first in the queue to read them when they are. Iain Halliday has done a lovely job with this book, and I hope he will continue to interpret the rest of the series for English-language readers.
A longer version of this review is at my blog Petrona, []
Cataldo is an introspective and self-contained man, quiet and committed to his job. He is called in when the body of Giulio Zoboli is found in his study, shot through the temple. The assumption is that the death is suicide, but Cataldo and his team soon discover that, as his wife Miriam suspects, Zoboli did not die a natural death.
Zoboli was an academic, working on literary analysis and criticism at Bologna University. He was frustrated because his mentor, Professor Luigi Ramondini, has taken his research findings to present at a conference, ostensibly on his behalf. Not only did Zoboli feel that Ramondini would take the credit that belongs to him, but also Zoboli did not have tenure. The Italian system of awarding university appointments via annual concorsi is famously corrupt and nepotistic. Zoboli was dependent on Ramondini for his chance at a permanent position, so did not insist on presenting the work himself, even though it would have greatly improved his chances of a professorship.
As well as this festering argument, a pale stranger had appeared in town a few days before, asking a hotel manager where Zoboli lives. Calling himself Alberto Ferraro, he followed Zoboli for a while, eventually going to his house and revealing himself to be a fellow academic wanting help with his research. Delighted at the prospect of discussing his work with a fellow-specialist, Zoboli agreed to meet Ferraro later that evening, half an hour before the fatal incident. When Miriam returned home from a couple of days away, she found her husband's body in the study and called the police, in the shape of Inspector Cataldo.
I loved this novel, which was written in 1999 but is only just translated and published in England by the small, independent publisher Hersilia Press. I am so pleased that I've been able to read this book, which certainly has an element of a Father Brown story and a dash of Hercule Poirot, but is distinctive in its own right. The author delivers on all counts: a tight plot which has a satisfying resolution despite a large number of motives and suspects - and indeed, additional murders; a lovely sense of place; and an appealing protagonist. Cataldo is a far cooler customer than his excitable fictional countryman Salvador Montalbano, but is intriguing in his philosophy of life and in his half-revealed past. According to the publisher's website, there are three more Inspector Cataldo novels yet to be translated, and I shall be first in the queue to read them when they are. Iain Halliday has done a lovely job with this book, and I hope he will continue to interpret the rest of the series for English-language readers.
A longer version of this review is at my blog Petrona, []
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I enjoyed this but it was hard work. I am not sure whether it is an affectation of the translator to write everything in the present tense or merely a repetition of the style of the author, either way the style is rather grating.
Format:Paperback
If this novel was meant to be insightful and witty, a lot must have been lost in the translation. As it is: the plot limps along at snail's pace; the characters fail to provide any points of interest and the denouement hardly raises a breath of surpise. Doesn't makes the grade in the competitive world of Eurocrime publishing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Inspector Cataldo's Criminal Summer
Came across this book by accident and ordered on a whim. I was fed up with a book I was reading and started this one - read over two days. No graphic violence and well written. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. W. Darby-jones
This just barely managed to keep my interest.
The characters were mostly 40-something which I had to remind myself of at least once a page. They all acted and sounded like they were 20 years younger. Read more
Published 7 months ago by John H. Turner
Good mystery swimming in the shallow end of the character pool
"Criminal Summer" is a well spun tale of murder, greed, envy and a gamut of human weaknesses set in 1990s northern Italy. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Blue in Washington
A delightful read, beautifully produced
I really enjoyed this atmospheric book which evocatively portrays the stifling atmosphere of a small Italian town in the Summer heat. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Clare P
Highly Irritating - but maybe better in Italian
This book really got up my nose. It's written in the first person, but instead of making me warm to the character I found my self highly irritated by the hero, all the suspects... Read more
Published 21 months ago by KCLS
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