Almost Blue (City Lights Italian Voices)
The most well known Italian sleuths (Dibdin's Aurelio Zen, Leon's Guido Brunetti) are aging melancholics. Lucarelli, who sings in a postpunk band and has written 11 novels (this is his first to appear in the U.S.), gives us Grazia Negro, a hip, young female detective working with a newly formed unit designed to track serial killers. There's one on the loose in Bologna, preying on university students and cruising the city's underground music clubs. What gives this novel its spark is Negro's encounter with Simone, a young blind man who spends his time listening to jazz and tuning into the sounds of the city on his scanner, which captures the voice of the killer. Lucarelli's characterization of Simone is fascinating, especially the detailed exposition of how the blind man hears what we see. His romance with Negro proves utterly believable and remarkably erotic. There are a few ragged plot edges here, but nothing to deter us from the conclusion that Lucarelli is a fresh and exciting new voice in Italian crime fiction. Keep the translations coming.Bill OttCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved