Review: Black Out by Gianluca Morozzi

Title: Black Out

Author: Gianluca Morizzi

Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press [original publication 2004, English translation 2008]

ISBN: 978-1-904738-32-9

Length: 251 pages

The premise of the book was intriguing to me. Being a little claustrophobic the idea of just being in an elevator longer than a few minutes sounds like hell, let alone if you add the heat of a southern Italian summer, many hours of being trapped and a crazed killer to the mix. However this was one of those books that was probably better as a pitch than as a wholly realised book. Black Out opens with a passage depicting the hideous torture of a man and if I hadn’t paid hard-earned cash for this one I might not have read further. Lacking context, the scene felt like the literary equivalent of a car chase in an action movie and you either enjoy that kind of thing or you don’t (I’ll let you guess my feelings).

The torture is perpetrated by a man called Aldo Ferro and after meeting him we’re introduced to Claudia a waitress who hates her job and a student named Tomas who has met the love of his life and is planning to run away to Amsterdam with her. All three of these strangers meet by chance in the lobby of an apartment building in Bologna, Italy on the afternoon of a holiday weekend. The elevator they all get into breaks down between the 11th and 12th floors of the building and the ten hours that follow are…well…miserable for all.

I liked one thing about this book: the characters of Claudia and Tomas were credible and quickly established them both as people that I hoped would somehow not fall victim to the evil in their midst.

But there was much not to like. I found it implausible that the kind of angry, perpetually sweaty man as Aldo was depicted would be able to seduce as many complete strangers as he did (both for killing and for casual sex) so I never really ‘bought’ him as a character. Just as well I guess because he’s the most disgusting character I’ve come across in a long time. Almost every line of dialogue he sprouted (either outwardly or in his head) involved some kind of pejorative statement about women and when he wasn’t making repugnant comments he was committing or imagining pointless, excruciatingly described violence.

The book read more like a B-grade screen play than a novel and I’m not surprised to see that it was made into a horror flic. Given the quality of the source material I’m even less surprised to learn the movie went straight to DVD release.  There’s little depth to the story and there’s never much suspense about what will happen in the elevator (you always know it’s going to involve blood and violence). The twist at the end is simply ridiculous and, literally, had me throwing the book at the wall. The writing itself is woeful and I don’t think it’s the translator’s fault. It’s full of clichés (there are only so many ways to describe rape and torture I suppose) and the startlingly large number of similes are off-putting. For example, during the first hour the three are trapped (a mere few pages of book space) they are described as alert as wolves, like wasps in an upturned glass, like worms in a jar and one is sweating like a pig with its throat cut. This took me out of the story as I tried to imagine some kind of hybrid wolf/worm/wasp/pig creature and ponder why a pig with a cut throat would sweat as well as bleed. I’m fairly sure that’s not the reaction the author was going for.

All I got out of this book was several restless nights and the idea that Mr Morozzi doesn’t think much of his country. Or humanity. As far as recommendations go: if people verbally and physically abusing each other is your thing and you have a strong stomach then have at it. Otherwise read anything else.

My rating: 1/5

Other stuff

Other reviewers see the book differently to me so for another perspective try the review by Helen at It’s Criminal

 

Review: The Raphael Affair by Iain Pears

Title: The Raphael Affair

Author: Iain Pears

Publisher: Harper [originally 1990, this edition 2007]

ISBN: 978-0-00-722917-8

No. of Pages: 246

Jonathan Argyll, an Englishman in Rome, is arrested for breaking into a church. But he makes some wild claims about why he was at the church so Flavia di Stefano of the Italian National Art Theft Squad is sent to interrogates him. He tells her that he was at the Church to look for a painting which he believes, due to his art history studies, is covering a previously unknown work by one of Italy’s 16thCentury Masters: Raphael. When the painting goes missing from the church and turns up as the property of an English art dealer the world becomes engrossed by the possibility of a ‘new’ Raphael painting.

This is a fairly simple story but it’s very well told. It’s full of wonderful detail about Italy, the art world and how forgery scams work but there’s a decent plot, containing the requisite amount of red herrings and wrong turns, too. As is the way with cosies, there’s not too much focus on the nastier elements of crime and, instead, the reader gets taken on a romp through the madness of Italian politics and the outrageous things people will do in the name of art (or love) (or money). Silly scenes, such as the one where Flavia and Jonathan hide in a toilet for several hours, could be trite if not done well but here it was amusing.

The characters are charming. As well as Argyll, something of a bumbling though clever Englishman, and the sometimes-sarcastic, mostly hard-working Flaviathere’s the ’shade overweight’, coffee-loving Generale Taddeo Bottandowho is in charge of the Art Theft Squad. All of them are people you’d like to sit in a café with while sipping an espresso and discussing the meaning of life.

As with most cosy mysteries the success factor lies in a combination of vaguely plausible story, fun characters and a back drop that interests the reader. One of the reason I struggle to find cosy books I like is that many of the backdrops don’t interest me that much (so many seem to involve anthropomorphised cats and/or cooking) whereas The Raphael Affair’s focus on art history and Italy was a winning combination for me.  If Donna Leon and Alexander McCall Smith wrote together I think the product would be something like this delightful book.

My rating 4/5

Other stuff

My thanks to Susy of the 4 Mystery Addicts online book group for recommending this series.

There are 6 other books in the Jonathan Argyll series with the last one published in 2000. Pears has written several standalone novels, including a historical thriller, as well and has a novel entitled Stone’s Falldue out (at least in the UK) next month.

 

Review: God’s Spy

Title: God’s Spy

Author: Juan Gomez-Jurado

Publisher: Orion Books 2007

ISBN: 978-0-75287-569-9

It is April 2005 and Pope John Paul II has died. Catholic Cardinals from across the world travel to the Vatican City for his funeral and to elect his successor. When someone brutally murders two of these cardinals Police in the Vatican are forced to seek help from Italian Police (who have no official jurisdiction inside the Vatican) with the proviso that no word of the murders leaks out to the media or the pilgrims who have flocked to Rome for the Pope’s funeral. Consequently only a handful of people are allowed to be involved in the investigation so there’s no huge team of forensic experts to back up the detectives.

We know virtually from the beginning who the killer is but, unusually, this doesn’t detract from the suspense. The novel is fast paced, full of twists and held my attention right to the end. The narrative is intertwined with excerpts from psychologist’s interviews with the killer which, combined with the placement of fictional events in a real setting, adds an air of authenticity to the story. Although even with that you still have to suspend your disbelief at the door.

The characters are a bit clichéd and service the plot rather than driving it. A priest/psychologist/CIA agent stretches the bounds of credibility to breaking point and the book never provides a convincing reason why an FBI-trained profiler (who is of course young, attractive and once slept with her boss) was chosen as the sole investigator for a case where the culprit is already known.

The book is certainly not for the feint-hearted as it involves the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church and contains pretty graphic descriptions of the gruesome murders.

I admit my inner conspiracy theorist makes me a bit of a sucker for this kind of religion-soaked thriller so I might be a bit more generous than other readers.

My rating 3.5/5