The theme of crime as a literary subject has been around for a very long time. That great epic of the Iliad might have been the first to start off the universal fascination with crime and mystery dealing as it does with the abduction of a woman who launched a thousand ships in a mistaken effort to get her back. Homer as a crime writer?
For me however, the modern crime novel starts firmly in the nineteenth century with authors like Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens whose inspector Bucket (‘Bleak House’) is the first in a line of detectives gracing this line of fiction and which include such unlikely-detective characters like Poirot Marlowe, Miss Marple, Clouseau and Campion. With Conan Doyle and Sherlock the golden age of crime fiction began and that missterly quartet of Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham, authors who once I thought very little about reading them but whose pages have now captured me.
The Film Noir visualized the epic American gangster-ridden, prohibitionist world with its angular shots and black-and-white celluloid. The fact that many of these Angel-faced assassins hailed from Italy and were first cousins to the Mafia was something that crossed my mind when I attended a fascinating evening with Marco Vichi, the author of the inspector Bordelli mysteries, at Bagni di Lucca ‘s villa Webb summer literary evenings.
I wonder how this detective’s name came about since ‘Bordello’ in Italian means a brothel. There is absolutely no doubt that crime fiction has spawned one of its most industrious offspringa in Italian Crime fiction. Vichi is a brilliant example of Italian authors writing this genre.
A good web page to find a list of his books is at
I nostri 10 migliori Marco Vichi Libri in Italia – Agosto 2023 | IlProdottoMigliore.it
Six of the Bordelli series have been translated into English and are available on Kindle. I asked Vichi when the remainder of the series would be translated. He replied ‘hopefully when I get another translator’.
Of course, there are also several brits that excel in writing crime in a country noted for the mysterious suaveness with which they dispatch their victims. After all Webster sent his Duchess of Malfi to no other place than our comune of Bagni di Lucca as part of his play’s scheme to do her in…Some of the more noteworthy ones are Timothy Williams (Converging parallels), David Hewson (The Savage Shore) and Patricia Highsmith (Mr Ripley).
Here are some other noteworthy authors of crime fiction set in Italy which I’ve read. They include both Italian and English authors.
Tina, Mafia Soldier by Maria Rosa Cutrufelli.
Originally published in 1994, Tina Cannizzaro’s story was inspired by that of Emanuela Azzarelli, a young woman who became the leader of a male teenage gang in the Sicilian town of Gela. Cutrufelli chronicles the events that shaped Tina’s life and set her on an irreversible path of crime and, ultimately, self-destruction against the backdrop of 1990s Sicily.
Riccardino by Andrea Camilleri
The publication of the Inspector Montalbano stories in English spans nearly two decades Riccardino is the final inspector Montalbano investigation. As usual, the setting is the fictional town of Vigàta on the south coast of Sicily.
The Measure of Time by Gianrico Carofiglio
Guido Guerrieri is a lawyer of middle years who practices in Bari, on Italy’s Adriatic coast. In this, Gianrico Carofiglio’s sixth legal thriller featuring Guerrieri, a case with uncomfortable links to the protagonist’s past finds its way to his door.
Here is a list of links describing further writings in the genre of crime novels set in Italy.
17 top crime novels set in Italy (deadgoodbooks.co.uk)
Amazon.it: Italian crime fiction
Italian crime fiction | Crime Fiction Lover
5 Books on Italian Crime Fiction – Italophilia (ishitasood.com)
17 top crime novels set in Italy (deadgoodbooks.co.uk)
The Best Books on Italian Crime Fiction – Five Books Expert Recommendations
I nostri 10 migliori Marco Vichi Libri in Italia – Agosto 2023 | IlProdottoMigliore.it
All in all, it was a very pleasant evening spent in the garden of the Villa Webb which once hosted another author who was described as being mad, bad and dangerous to know. I found Marco Vichi to be an author who is quite honest about the way he writes and who gladly answered my inquisitive questions.
To return to the title of this post. Does crime pay? Of course it doesn’t. But if one rephrases the question as ‘does crime writing pay?’ It may well do although clearly the field is very competitive and only the best will succeed.