*Mademoiselle de Scudéri, by E.T.A. Hoffman

1843910241
Hesperus Press, 2002
originally published in 1819
translated by Andrew Brown
90 pp

paperback

"Un amant qui craint les voleurs
n'est point digne d'amour." 

Finally getting myself back on track here, I've just finished  E.T.A. Hoffman's Mademoiselle de Scudéri, which has been seen by many  as an early, pre-Poe example of the detective story. In his foreword, Gilbert Adair also notes that this is so, and he notes that Mademoiselle de Scudéri is a "genteel elderly spinster not a thousand miles away from Agatha Christie's Miss Marple."  He may be right, and in that sense, this short novella is definitely worth reading by anyone at all interested in the history of the genre, and to be more specific, in the history of the female amateur detective.  

Set in Paris, "the scene of the most heinous atrocities," during the reign of Louis XIV, this tale comes on the heels of the infamous ""affair of the poisons" of 1677 that resulted in the establishment of the Chambre ardente, a special tribunal headed by Gabriel Nicolas de La Reynie. As Hoffman reveals,

"The tribunal completely assumed the character of an inquisition, the slightest suspicion was sufficient to lead to brutal incarceration, and it was often left to chance to demonstrate the innocence of the person accused of a capital crime." 

Just FYI, I'm not offering a history lesson here -- all of this is relevant to the case in which la Mademoiselle finds herself embroiled. It seems that while the poisonings have become "less and less frequent," another series of crimes finds its way onto the streets of Paris. This time it is the theft of jewelry, assumed to be the work of a "gang of thieves" who were out to "get its hands on all the jewels in town". Their victims are all men who have purchased "rich jewellery" -- not only are they robbed, but they are either knocked out or murdered.  All of the dead men showed the same sort of wound: "a dagger-thrust to the heart which ... killed so swiftly and surely that the wounded victim simply fell to the ground, unable to utter a sound."  Despite strengthened police presence, the thefts and murders continued, and  it wasn't long until people began to believe that perhaps

 "it really was the devil himself protecting the heinous villains who had souls their souls to them."

 This story takes place in 1680.  Around midnight a "cloaked figure" makes his way to the home of the celebrated Mademoiselle de Scudéri on the rue St. Honoré, demanding to see her. She is asleep, but in talking to the maid, he leaves behind a small casket that he demands be given to her.  The next day, upon inspection, it is found to contain "a pair of golden bracelets richly adorned with jewels" and matching necklace, along with a note signed by "The Invisibles" who thank her for her "wit" which has saved them "from great persecution." The jewelry is a gift, a token of their "gratitude," and she is appalled that this notorious gang of thieves and murderers would even consider that she was their friend in some way. Taking the jewelry to her friend (and the mistress of  the king) Madame de Maintenon, she discovers that the pieces were all the creations of René Cardillac, "the most skillful practitioner of his art, not only in Paris, but perhaps of his whole age," who when questioned, reveals that the jewelry had "inexplicably disappeared" from his workshop. Later, when Cardillac turns up dead, Mademoiselle de Scudéri suddenly and somewhat reluctantly finds herself deeply involved in the case, finding herself in direct opposition to the notorious chambre ardente. 

I had great fun with this story.  It may not be the greatest literature ever written, as it leans a bit to the side of melodrama toward the end, and it ultimately depends a great deal on coincidence (both part of my normal reasons for not enjoying a book),  but I have to say that after all has been revealed, the story becomes much more than just a work of crime fiction. The historical aspects are fascinating -- the affair of the poisons and its psychological aftermath,  the concerns that the devil and his henchmen are active agents on the streets of Paris, the creation and operations of the chambre ardente all make for great reading.  The personal history and the psychological motives underlying the acts of the villain of this piece are also quite interesting, and as Adair has noted in his foreword, it is vintage Hoffman.    I won't explain, but I would suggest not reading anything at all about this book that gives away much more than the dustjacket cover blurb. Heck, don't even read the foreword or the introduction if coming to this book with, as Adair says, "an 'innocent' eye."

I know that a number of people didn't care too much for Mademoiselle de Scudéri, and I can sort of understand their reasons why.   However, as a step toward modern crime fiction, it is of great interest to me as a reader of the genre, and in that sense, it is well worth the time, and I'm very happy to have read it.

back to the north: Spring Tide, by Cilla & Rolf Börjlind

9781843915157
Hesperus/Nova, 2014
originally published as Springfloden, 2012
473 pp

paperback, copy for review - thank you, Shannon!

I have to offer kudos to the authors for their opening chapter -- I think they designed the first few pages totally for shock value and it worked.  There is one of the most god-awful crimes going on in that chapter, and seriously, I couldn't help but to be drawn in just to see who could have committed such a terrible deed. Eventually all is made clear, but in the meantime, a number of other things are going on that the reader must work through before getting to the big reveal.  On the whole, it's not a bad book -- there are a number of twists and turns throughout the story that keep things interesting and then there's that need to figure out who could have committed such an atrocious opening crime and why that kept me reading -- but on the flip side, there are definitely issues that keep it from being a much better book.

The story begins in 1987 on the west coast of Sweden, on a night of a spring tide.  While the tide is out, three people bury a woman in the exposed sand, leaving only her head exposed, knowing that within fifteen minutes, the waves would be rolling back in with the high tide that would raise the water level about 50 centimeters. They do the deed, not knowing that there is someone else on the beach watching them. As the tide starts to come back in, we are told that not only is this poor woman pregnant, but that her water has broken.  Nearly a quarter of a century later, in 2011, young Olivia Rönning, a police-college student, is just about to start her summer holidays.  One of her instructors has a file of cold cases in his hand, and offers them a "voluntary" summer project: they are to choose one case, make an analysis of the investigation, and see if they can find anything that have been done differently - "a little exercise in how cold cases can be tackled." Olivia chooses one that her father, now deceased, had worked on as a DCI in the national crime squad.  As it just so happens, it's the murder of the pregnant woman that occurred in 1987 in Hasslevikarna, on the island of Nordkoster. Olivia really gets into this murder study, mainly because the woman's identity had never been established  - and comes up with all kinds of ideas.  The first thing she does is to look for the original investigating officer, Tom Stilton, only to find out that no one seems to know where he is. Later she will discover his whereabouts and they will team up, but first, she decides to go to Hasslevikarna herself and find out what she can there.

While Olivia is off playing girl detective, the streets of Stockholm are in a bit of turmoil. Some very nasty people are attacking the homeless on the streets, beating them up,  filming the violence on their cell phones and then sending the video to a website called Trashkick.  The police haven't seemed very interested in getting to the bottom of things, but when a woman is killed, one roughsleeping man in particular decides he needs to find out who did this, only to find out that the problem is even worse than he'd imagined.  Then there's a storyline regarding a minerals magnate who maintains his interests through some pretty unsavory methods, but who will do anything to save himself and his fortune when someone from the past pops up, threatening to reveal a shared secret.  The book encompasses all of these plotlines, along with running social commentary,  mainly on the lack of a safety net for the not-so-fortunate in Stockholm.

from hem.bredband.net

So - while I enjoyed the basic whodunit solving of the story as well as  some surprising twists that kept cropping up that appealed to my need to play armchair detective,  I think the authors were a little overambitious here.  If the story had been reined in a little more, more tightly controlled with a lot of extraneous stuff edited out,  it would have made for much better reading.  Second, I just couldn't help noticing the number of  coincidences that play a huge role throughout the book, some of them just too fluky to be credible. Then there's main character Olivia -- while she becomes embroiled in this particular cold case for her own reasons, sometimes she comes across as a less-serious heroine than one would expect. It's almost as if the authors felt they needed a young-adult component to reach a wider reading audience.  Teaming her up with the inwardly-tormented Stilton was a great idea, but even there, he's definitely the one in control. And finally, while I think crime fiction is an excellent venue for exploring social issues, it has to be done in moderation and in the context of the story to come off in a very good way -- here, it's just a little overdone for my personal taste.

So far, from what I can tell, reader reviews have been positive, with a number of people eager for Spring Tide to branch out into a series.   If that happens, I would likely give a second book a read -- while the Börjlinds may be seasoned television scriptwriters, this is their first attempt at novel writing, and they wouldn't be the only newbie novelists who were a little overambitious initially but who came back stronger in their next attempt.

I Will Have Vengeance, by Maurizio de Giovanni

9780956379634
Hersilia Press, 2012 (UK)
originally published as Il Senso del Dolore, 2007
translated by Anne Milano Appel
213 pp
(trade paper)

Naples in 1931 is the setting for this novel, about nine years into the rule of Mussolini and the Fascists.  Twenty-five years earlier, little Luigi Alfredo Ricciardi, who had been mesmerized by Emilio Salgari's "Tiger of Malaysia," stories was pretending to be on an adventure out in the jungle when he came across a man with a pruning knife in his chest. The man spoke, and feeling the weight of his sorrow,  Luigi Alfredo ran home.  As it turned out, his description of what he saw jibed perfectly with a crime that had happened some five months earlier; this vision became known as "The Incident," a "scar on his soul" that was only the first of many such emotional encounters with the dead who had died violently:  He

"saw them as though in a photograph that captured the moment their lives ended, one whose contours slowly faded until they disappeared...The image of the dead man, bearing the marks of his wounds and his expression at the very last moment before the end; and his final words, repeated endlessly, as if to conclude something the soul had begun before being torn away...He grasped their sorrow, their surprise, their rage, their misery. Even their love."

*** Umm, hellooo -- this sounds like Haley Joel Osment's character in The Sixth Sense and it was at this juncture, four pages in, that I had to decide whether or not to  continue reading.  I happen to love particularly good, well-written weird fiction --  as a matter of fact I'm busy reading it right now --  where this sort of thing happens, but definitely NOT in my crime novels.  After two votes to one in favor of sticking with it, I didn't put it down, and I Will Have Vengeance  turned out to be an okay read where good, old-fashioned police work, rather than the supernatural, is the key to solving the crime.   I am saying all of this in the off chance that someone else will have my experience.  ***

 Now 31, Ricciardi  is the Commissario of the Mobile Unit of the Regia Questura di Napoli, somewhat of a loner in the force because he gives most of his co-workers the willies. He wears his sorrow on his sleeve, and although he solves a lot of crimes, other people don't really understand him, with the exception of his friend and colleague Maione.   Now the two of them have a tough case to solve: at the San Carlo Theater, a tenor playing the lead role in Pagliacci has been found dead in his dressing room.  Ricciardi is under a great deal of pressure; the tenor, Vezzi, is a favorite of Il Duce, so the case takes on political undertones:  a solution must be found or heads will roll.  Ricciardi is in no hurry despite the threats of his superior --  he takes his time to uncover the truth.  What he finds is that there are several people who may have had it in for Vezzi -- however great a tenor he may have been, his conduct as a human being was atrocious.

Despite my initial misgivings, the novel turned out to be an okay read that launches an entire series.  The solution to the crime is solidly constructed, step by step, and there's a very nice twist at the end that lends an element of surprise to the solution.  He adds more than just a sense of place in his Naples of 1931; it's a time when political connections are everything to those either on the top tier of society or those who aspire to get ahead but at the same time the author does not shy away from the situation of the poor.  While friends are sitting at a cafe drinking coffee and eating sfogliatelle, there are some people who don't eat for days.  The author spends a great deal of time on character development in this novel, not just in terms of Ricciardi, but other people as well.  Each character has a personality with a backstory, a critical factor in this book but also in terms of an ongoing series.

I have to be honest and say that I wasn't too taken by the supernatural approach and although I realize it's kind of a metaphor made manifest to understand the main character, it seriously could have been left out with no problem. I'm just wondering if de Giovanni is flying on the tails of the paranormal epidemic in publishing, but really, the story would have been good on its own without this device. I get it -- the dead  and their sorrows are a weight on Ricciardi's shoulders, so  he seeks out ways to help alleviate the suffering of the living so that they don't carry it with them to the next world unheard or uncared about; he also feels like someone needs to find some measure of justice for the dead.  Ricciardi's sense of fair play and his ideas of justice are actually elements of the novel that I liked -- rather than caring about keeping his career intact, the Commissario cares about people. 

There are several reviews of I Will Have Vengeance; here are three:  Maxine at Eurocrime, Mrs. P also takes a look at it, and there's a review at Crime Fiction Lover as well. While this book may not be perfect for everyone, I'm happy to add yet another Italian author to my growing international crime fiction library.  It's not a cozy read, nor does it really turn out to be  a paranormal story, despite the frame.  And do not expect an Inspector Montalbano-type read at all if that's as far as your Italian crime fiction experience goes -- not even close.  The book's premise may scare people off, but do give it a try -- you'll be surprised at how tangible the crime and its solution turn out to be.  My thanks to Laura, Maxine and Eric!