Carlo Fruttero and Franco
Lucentini were a well-known literary duo in Italy for several decades until
Lucentini’s death in 2002. For about forty years they co-wrote newspaper and
magazine articles, literary essays, edited numerous anthologies, and published
six groundbreaking and best-selling mystery novels. Their first novel, The
Sunday Woman, was adapted for film in 1975 starring Marcello Mastroianni,
Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Louis Trintignant.
An Enigma by the Sea, their third book, was first
published in Italian in 1991 as Enigma in luogo di mare by Arnoldo
Mondadori Editore S.p.A., Milano. It was published in the UK in 1994 by Chatto
& Windus Ltd, London. Bitter Lemon Press has issued a fresh edition with a
translation by Gregory Dowling, an Oxford graduate now residing in Venice.
Dowling is no stranger to crime fiction, he’s the author of a half dozen
historical mysteries.
Bitter Lemon Press seems to
specialize in exquisitely written mysteries, although this particular title is
more of a comedy of manners than crime fiction. Readers who enjoy snark and
eccentric characters along with their whodunnits will adore this book. The aforesaid
eccentrics inhabit 153 villas set among the pine trees of the forest Gualdana
along the coast of Italy. Most of them use their villas as vacation residences
but some inhabit them year round and rely on the tiny village nearby to supply
their needs. There’s Signor Monforti, chronic depressive and inveterate
naysayer who yearns after the beautiful Signora Neri. He is sure if she would
just marry him, his negativity would fly away, never to return. Signora Neri is
of a more practical turn of mind and questions just how happy she could be with
someone who never is.
Then there’s Signora Baldacci,
known to be straying outside her marriage with the much younger Dino
Fioravanti. It was popularly supposed that Signor Baldacci was in ignorance of
this arrangement until the two men encountered each other outside a local bar
and blows were exchanged. Threats were also uttered and the local police fear
the threats will be carried out; they were specific and detailed, these
threats, and both parties have the means to execute them. Much time and worry
is expended within the police office, trying to decide what to do.
Then there’s the villa
infested with rats and the daughters of the family shrieking and huddling on
the beds. And Signor Salvini who is sneaking a girl into his wife’s vacation
villa for the usual reasons, but she is so clearly no better than she should be
that he cannot be seen publicly with her for fear of word getting back to his
wife. He makes up all sorts of reasons to stop along the way to the village so
as to arrive after dark. And the pair of comedy writers who have encountered
writers’ block. And on and on.
The story seems never to get
around to any crime to speak of but the villa residents and the village
storekeepers are so amusing I didn’t really mind. Until about midway in the
book one character after another realizes this person or that one hasn’t been
seen for awhile. They each make their way to the Marshal’s office to report a
missing person, who is overwhelmed by the report of the fourth unexplained
absence. Watching the local police investigate is quite entertaining.
A list in the back of the book
itemizes the characters and their role in the book. It would be more helpful up
front where the reader could consult at the first moment of confusion, of which
I had many.
Readers who require frenetic
action should pass on this story. But I found it to be a witty, beautifully
written book. Kirkus summed it up neatly: “A juicily acerbic mystery
that’s more lurid soap opera than whodunit.”
·
Publisher:
Bitter Lemon Press
·
Publication
date: April 21, 2026
·
Language:
English
·
Print
length: 416 pages
·
ISBN-10:
1916725198
·
ISBN-13:
978-1916725195
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3Pwxtoz
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal
It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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