Fictional Italian detectives

It seems that I have a soft spot for detective stories set in Italy. Apart from the Commissario Brunetti¹ stories (written by Donna Leon) set in Venice², I have also read and enjoyed four books written by Tom Benjamin, featuring private detective Daniel Leicester and set in Bologna. Recently I've come across another series, this time featuring retired DCI Daniel Armstrong and set in various locations in northern Italy such as Tuscany, Firenze and Portofino; these are written by T. A. Williams.

I find these books charming, and possibly useful as tourist guides. I doubt very much that I will return to Venice, for otherwise I could check out some of the Brunetti locations. Similarly, I won't be returning to Firenze³, but I do have my eye on a trip to Liguria, probably staying in Santa Margherita Liguria and visiting Portofino.

Whilst I also find the Armand Gamache⁴ books interesting (though not as tourist guides), they slightly annoy me in that they are basically part of the 'closed circle of suspects' (or 'drawing room murders') genre. So are the Armstrong books. I have to admit that I don't like this genre very much; whilst it allows the author to concentrate on characterisation, it doesn't allow for open ended investigations that are the norm for real-life police murder cases.

It seems that author T. A. Williams is churning these books out, as 'In Tuscany' was published in 2022 and 'In Verona' (the ninth book; Portofino is eighth) was published at the end of 2024. That said, they make for interesting reading, and unusually for modern books there is no sex (it might be implied, but not written about) and no bad language. And they are much better than 'The spy in the shadows'⁵.

The Italian books take great pains in showing all the wonderful meals that are served, so I often wonder how a Italian Jew who keeps kosher (no meat and milk) and has hyperaldosteronism (no tomatoes, especially) would eat. I love the fresh fish but not the frutti di mare (not kosher).

One question that has always been in my mind from the Brunetti books: what does Dottore mean? The answer comes from T. A. Williams: they addressed him as ‘Dottore’, the usual appellation for an Italian with a university degree or in a position of responsibility. So I can be called Dottore when in Italy.

One peeve that I have with the Brunetti books is that time seems to stand still: the children are still the same age, or maybe are one year old in the later books than they were in the earlier books. One policeman gets promoted, the police pilot is replaced and the Senegalese waiter in the police's local bar takes over the bar, but otherwise everything else is the same. This does not happen in the other books that feature a normal continuing back story.

One final niggle before I close this blog: in 'Murder in Chianti' (the second Dan Armstrong book), his daughter says prior to visiting Firenze that "We can get a train direct from Pisa airport and be there in little more than an hour."  When we went to Firenze, we flew to Firenze airport, not to Pisa. It seems strange to me that they would fly to Pisa unless this was a direct flight from Birmingham where the daughter lives.

Internal links
[1] 1114
[2] 855
[3] 848
[4] 1868
[5] 1888

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