Inspector Cataldo's Criminal Summer
From the first chapter: “It is only the end of June and it is already too hot in Guiglia. At ten in the morning the windows of the houses shine in the sun, and the glare is stronger than it should be. It is holiday time - the schools are closed, the kids are all out on their bikes every day. But right now there is a strange silence in the almost lazy, somnolent air, in the few hotels that are open, in the streets, in the calm, in the light. And in Via Dante Alighieri, there is a detached house that seems immersed in the quiet. Apart that is from two voices - one shrill, the other low - that debate and dispute rhythmically, each filling the other’s pauses with a subtle, hidden tension.”
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REVIEWS AND COMMENTS
"I have just finished reading this and really loved it. I thought that writing it in the present tense heightened the atmosphere and kept the tension right to the end. I've bought a copy for my best friend's birthday. When is the next in the series due to be published? I can't wait!" (Margaret, Gosford)
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AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR, LUIGI GUICCIARDI
Tell us about yourself. What do you do when you are not writing crime books?
I teach Italian and Latin literature at the “Tassoni” scientific high school in Modena, my home town: as you can easily imagine, there are lectures to prepare, homework to mark, and many other tasks that don’t leave much spare time. When I have some, I mostly spend it reading, watching films and football on tv, and going for walks (which I happily keep doing in the summer in the Trentino mountains) and of course thinking about some new book plot.
What prompted you to start writing?
I wanted to put into practice as a writer what I thought I had learnt in many years as a reader (not only of crime fiction, of course). In other words, after spending many years, as a teacher and researcher of popular literature, “deconstructing” the mechanisms of novels written by others, I was ready to experiment with a novel of my own. The Italian public liked it, I also enjoyed writing it and I continued.
Have you ever experienced “writer’s block”? Have you any advice on how to overcome it?
Not yet: I usually write my books in a short period of time (during the summer months) but I plan them between September and May, during school time. Without writing a single line, I think about the plot, I imagine the characters, I choose the locations, etc. When I start writing I already have the whole structure of the book in my head.
Have you ever thought of working on other genres?
Not other literary genres, no. I have written &mdash and sometimes still write &mdash literary and historical commentary, essays and articles in edited books and specialised journals (“Italianistica", “Lingua e stile”, “Il Mulino”, “Storia contemporanea”, “Studi e problemi di critica testuale”, “Delitti di carta”, “Narrativa/Centre de Recherches Italiennes de l’Université Paris X-Nanterre”) and edit special commented editions or textbooks.
What do you read in your spare time?
I read &mdash also as part of my job &mdash Homer, Dante, Manzoni, Leopardi, Pirandello, Gadda and the Latin classics (Cicero, Sallustius, Horace, Virgil), as well as ancient history or geography monographs. As a hobby, I read or re-read the crime writers I prefer: Simenon, some of the Americans (Chandler or McBain), old books by Scerbanenco and Olivieri, and among contemporary authors, Petros Markaris, James Lee Burke and Ben Pastor.
Where do you find inspiration for Inspector Cataldo’s investigations?
From many things, all different: sometimes a news item, or the memory of an old film (often in black and white) or from a passage in a book I read long time ago, and of which I have often only an impression left. But most of all I am inspired &mdash to quote from an English writer — by “that interesting psychological phenomenon, the imagination of the crime novelist” [P.D. James, The Lighthouse].
What does Cataldo read between cases?
He reads a lot, even strange things he finds at open air markets (for example, in La Belva, 2009, L'onestà sperimentale, a collection of letters, of great social worth, between Cecchi and Contini, two important Italian critics). He likes, in particular, two great writers from his own Sicily, Pirandello and Sciascia, whom he sometimes quotes, between thoughts and reflections, during his investigations.
How autobiographical is Cataldo?
He is about 50% autobiographical, in that I've attributed to him part of me, of my personality, my taste: his Sicilian origin, patience, curiosity, the books he reads, the music he listens to. But I've also attributed to him aspects that are almost opposite, from the physical appearance to his love life and the investigations he carries out. This way I always find in him something pleasantly familiar (which is also reassuring for the habitual reader) but I always have the option to try new “experiments”, which is a good antidote to the possibility of boredom or tiredness. Don't forget Cataldo is a character in evolution, who gets old and changes his life book after book, in parallel with the changes in the city where he has moved to.
How does the character of Cataldo evolve and change through the various books in the series?
Cataldo arrives in Modena when he’s forty years old (with his first investigation in Inspector Cataldo's Criminal Summer), and has asked to be transferred from Catania to progress in his career and let fate decide on a romantic involvement that's going through a rough patch. Initially he is conditioned by homesickness and moves in a lonely way in a new environment and with a detached viewpoint, but then develops a familiarity with the local food, dialect, the streets and the people in Modena; with the local dimension that he has to live with. So he falls in love, falls out of love, gets married, becomes a father, goes through a marriage crisis etc. I believe that all this — giving life to a character in progress — has allowed me to give it a more realistic, human dimension. And with the evolution of Cataldo I've been intrigued by the idea of a city undergoing a similar evolution and change of perspective, meaning portraying my Modena with the eyes of a foreigner who changes and becomes older.
Can you give us a preview of your latest book (just published in Italian)?
It is entitled La morte ha mille mani (“Death has a hundred hands” from a verse by T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral) and the investigation starts with the murder of a famous surgeon, wealthy owner of a cosmetic surgery clinic. While the hype of the murder shakes the city, Cataldo understands immediately that the possible avenues of investigation are too numerous, from revenge to sex, from greed to power, and that unfortunately the mysterious killer has left almost no trace. The investigation seems to go nowhere, until it is relaunched following two other gruesome murders: this time the victims are old patients of the surgeon, therefore the three deaths are intimately linked. Cataldo will have to live with other doubts and other risks, both human and professional, before arriving to a truth that in the end will be disconcerting and very bitter.
