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There's something very un-Italian about Italian crime stories. They tend to be urbane, calm and unstressful, the investigating officers patient and discursive, and even the villains often give up without a fight. Once it's explained to them that they've been found out, they raise their hands in acknowledgement and come quietly. Perhaps it's all those years of confession and atonement. This more-English-than-an-English-cosy feel certainly applies to Criminal Summer in which the leisurely Inspector Cataldo investigates a short series of murders clearly linked to a dubious car crash eighteen years before, in which an enormous sum of cash was stolen from the car. The man jailed for the crime has just been released and is in the area. Did he want revenge? No, that's too obvious. You wouldn't buy it, and neither does Cataldo.

It's a pleasant read and, although it should appeal to readers of Camillero and Carofiglio, they do it better. Behind the languid front of this tale is an over-complicated plot and, I suspect, an all too obvious true culprit. But it's an enjoyable read in the sunshine, alongside a glass of Orvietto.

Russell James

Criminal Summer

by Luigi Guicciardi (translated by Iain Halliday)

Hersilia Press paperback, £7.99, 978-0-9563796-0-3