This is the first book to feature Commissario Soneri of the Polizia, the Italian civil police. It is set in the Po valley.
As the book starts, it is raining and the Po is rising. The elderly members of the boatman's club are monitoring its levels. A barge owned by Tonna, an aged and reclusive boatman, slips its moorings and showing a single light, sets off through the turbulent waters of the Po in spate. Most of the first chapter follows its progress as the boatmen and increasingly, the police try to gauge what is happening. Is Tonna aboard? Is he alone? Does he know what is happening? Eventually the barge fetches up against an embankment, abandoned, but because it has successfully negotiated four bridges, it is assumed that somebody has been aboard.
Meanwhile, at the local hospital, a local character who spent most of his time visiting clinics and wards to chat to the patients, has been found dead, beneath an open, broken window, an apparent suicide. He is also a Tonna, Decimo Tonna, the bargeman's brother. Soneri is sent to investigate. He quickly comes to believe that it would be too much of a coincidence if the occurrences were not connected and directs his attention towards the Po and discovering what has happened to the elder Tonna brother. The people of the river are an isolated and unreceptive community and Soneri finds it hard to communicate with them, let alone gain their confidence.
With the exception of the initial section, we see the action completely from Soneri's point of view. We know very little about him, except what we learn from his actions and interactions with other people, but he slowly emerges as an interesting and sympathetic figure, an investigator of skill and sensitivity.
In name, Soneri is the main character of this book, but he has a strong rival. The river Po dominates this book - its strength, beauty, mystery and, above all, power. It controls both the landscape and the people who live there, and it always has done.
Apart from being an excellent detective story, this is an interesting book. It raises aspects of Italian society that I sort of knew about but had not really registered. As with Marco Vichi's Bordelli books set in Florence, we become aware of the long shadow cast by the War, and the bitter conflict between the Fascists and the Partisans. This illuminates and gives some sort of explanation for the political turmoil in Italy today.
I recommend this book and am glad to hear that a second is on its way.
