Three-Card Monte (World Noir)

This new novel by Marco Malvaldi marks the return of the investigative quartet nicknamed the "senile squad." At the Bar Lume, with the exception of the bartender Massimo and his assistant, the beautiful and kindly Tiziana, the youngest regular customer is Aldo, seventy-something owner of the Osteria Boccaccio. Then come his longtime friends, each one older than the former. Their principle, indeed their only activity is sitting around at the Bar Lume ostensibly playing cards but in reality analyzing, postulating, gossiping, and chronicling every event that occurs in their small Tuscan town, their talk laced with colorful tuscan slang and figures of speech. Massimo, all intuition but tending toward inaction, is obliged to investigate a homicide on behalf of his all-too-curious clientele and by Commissario Fusco of the local police. The old-timers provide a running commentary and play devil's advocate to any and all theories concerning the perpetrators of the crime. Their cunning at three-card monte has taught them how to see past appearances to the truth that lies behind. An Italian Comedy, a beguiling Italian mystery, and a vivacious portrayal of small-town Italy all wrapped into one.