Rating 4/5
Review:
A very good detective story
I enjoyed this book very much - a lot more than many other reviewers, it seems. I thought as a private detective mystery it worked very well, with a credible and comprehensible plot which was very well developed in the narrative, and believable, well-drawn characters. Jones (who lives in Parma) also creates an excellent sense of place - Northern Italy in winter - and the mores and politics of the city and of Italy itself, and I found the central character narrating the story interesting and sympathetic in a flawed, human way
Like one or two other reviewers, this book put me in mind of Raymond Chandler. No one, of course, has Chandler's uniquely brilliant style, but the first-person narration by a solitary, fundamentally moral character, the way in which he describes the gumshoe work of talking to people and his semi-co-operative and uneasy relationship with the police were all reminiscent. Even the beekeeping reminded me of Marlowe's chess problems as a way of distancing himself from the moral squalor he has to work with. All this is very much to the good, and Jones's prose has a style of its own which I liked very much: direct, unfussy, rather spare and a pleasure to read.
I found this was a very thoughtful, engrossing and enjoyable book. I hope it is sufficiently successful to develop into a series. I certainly look forward to more and I can see Castagnetti becoming yet another well-loved fictional detective. Perhaps not five stars, but certainly four-plus. Highly recommended.
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