Going abroad
Venice, Paris take center stage in two masterful mysteries

The Italian writing duo of Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini have for more than four decades of working together. They have written newspaper and magazine articles, literary essays, edited anthologies and published six best-selling mystery novels. Their first novel, “The Sunday Woman,” was made into a film in 1975 starring Marcello Mastroianni, Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Louis Trintignant. In good news to American audiences, on Feb. 20, Bitter Lemon Press of London released the first English translation of the duo’s 1986 novel “The Lover of No Fixed Abode” in the United States. 

Sited in Venice, “The Lover of No Fixed Abode” is such a stunning narrative and tour of Venice that the reader will feel thoroughly traveled through the plazas and alleyways of this complicated and bizarre city. The crime itself, presented and translated with perfect pitch by Gregory Dowling, is only possible in the eccentric City with the stench of barely circulating waterways.

The story is set over the course of three days in the 1980s and involves the lives of only two characters, “bookended,” as the cover blurb discloses, “by the arrival of a plane and the departure of a ship.”

Mr. Silvera is a tour guide of indeterminate age who speaks a half dozen or more languages, lives on cruise ships, airplanes, buses and in quaint hotels, and is employed by a budget travel agency. His valise is handy, contents are minimal, and he wears his only suit every day, pressing his trousers under the mattress of the hotel bed. He completes his belongings with a classic, hardwearing trench coat. He’s a man of routine, knows the rap on every tourist attraction, herds his charges to every stop on the itinerary and is skilled at relieving unending gripes, quarrels and disappointments. He knows thoroughly every inch of Venice.

And then there is the comely middle-aged fine-art scout on a buying trip to Venice who is the other half of this story – or more rightly, she’s the third character when Venice itself is rightly counted as a character. She’s referred to as the Roman princess throughout the book, and it’s made increasingly clear that her inspection of fine art is not limited strictly to originals.

Silvera and our travel weary art buyer meet by chance. And as often occurs with travelers, proprieties are relaxed and the sophisticated art specialist permits herself to be beguiled by the enigmatic Mr. Silvera. And what plans to be an espresso under a cafe umbrella turns into a misbehaving afternoon tryst. She becomes obsessed to learn more about Silvera as he directs her to sequestered art treasures then disappears for hours to reappear next to her under cool, ironed hotel sheets.

This is an edge-of-your-seat story in slow motion written by two very talented writers. If you think mysteries must include murder and sleuthing, this isn’t the book for you. But if crime can be knitted into life itself, this will keep you suspended until the sun comes up.

Before I close out, you should also know about a Soho Press hardcover book by Cara Black that dropped on March 5 titled “Murder at la Villette.” 

As Venice played a character part in “The Lover of No Fixed Abode,” Black’s new book is a tour de force of hide-and-seek through the alleys and dive bars of the 19th Arrondissement of Paris by private investigator Aimée Leduc.

Leduc, who arrived one night to meet the estranged father of her daughter Chloé on the Bassin de la Villette, found Jérome Melac stabbed and slipping into the canal. As she struggled to pull him back over the edge, the murderer bludgeoned her unconscious and wrapped her hand around the bloody knife used to murder Melac. 

Aimée wakes up in police custody charged with the murder of Malec, a homicide detective with a dubious career who had a target on his back from years of bullying and prosecuting murders. 

Aimée maneuvers herself out of jail, and with her employee René sets out with changing disguises and patterns to find the killer. 

Besides a detailed tour of Paris, Cara Black has written a clever, fast-paced and exciting book I promise you will need to peel your fingers off. ?