Random Things Tours: A Walk in the Dark by Gianrico Carofiglio

 

Italy has an impressive number of crime fiction writers, not necessarily because there is some everyday life inspiration that one cannot ignore. Not all Italian books deal with Mafia but there are many talented Italian writers unfortunatelly not enough translated into English. (My shame though for not keeping up with reading in Italian which I manage pretty well).

A Walk in the Dark by Gianrico Carofiglio publiashed by Bitter Lemon Press is an example in this respect. Carofiglio himself has an inspiring professional journey. An anti-Mafia prosecutor and former MPs he is a successful novelist with novels adapted for television. A Walk in the Dark (Ad occhi chiusi in original), for instance, was a top bestseller in Italy for a year and a half.

The book is part of the series featuring the police inspector Guido Guerrieri, a very relatable character with a complex way of relationing with other humans, particularly women. As it was my first book from the series, I did not encounter any difficulties in reading and understanding it, but I would be curious to follow this characters in other adventures as well (hopefully in the original Italian language).

The task Guerrieri has to solve right now is related to the case of a woman stalked by an ex-boyfriend who happens to be the son of a powerful local judge. While trying to bring the culprit to face responsibility for his violent behavior, there are the fine distinctions of the Italian society he is about to face or even fight against. The slow pace of the story, which flows naturally, out of timely although very much suited to the way in which life actually flows gives enough time to the reader to connect to the story but also understand its small details. It creates an intimate ambiance and dialogue between the writer and the readers, as well as outlines the relationship between the characters.

What I particularly loved from the style point of view is the journalistic way of telling the story, which makes it almost a real crime story. The small sentences are concise and expressing adequatelly the tension and the sense of emergency of some of the episodes.

A Walk in the Dark, translated into German as Reise in der Nacht, is my first encounter with Carofiglio´s writing, but definitely not the last. As I am interested in exploring more Italian topics and discover more Italian voices in the next months, this book is an important step forward towards reaching my bookish goal.

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own