Holy Smoke – Tonino Benacquista
In 1991 this crime novel won three mystery prizes: the 813 Trophy, the Grand Prix de la Littérature Policière and the Prix Mystère de la Critique.
Antoine “Antonio” Polsinelli is a second generation
Parisian who has a positive dislike of his ancestral land. He even keeps to a
minimum visits to his parents in their Little Naples suburb of Paris. On a
visit there, however, he is waylaid by a childhood friend with whom he now
shares nothing in common. Under a vague sense of obligation, he agrees to write
a love letter for Dario, a low-life gigolo who also sings stuff like Funiculì
Funiculà in a hostess bar. When Dario is found dead with a bullet to the head,
Tonio finds to his mortification that Dario has left him 10 acres of vineyard in
the dusty natal town of their parents, somewhere east of Naples.
On visiting his little patch of heritage and future in an ever- changing world, Tonio finds the wine undrinkable. And that Dario had set up an elaborate scam. I won’t relate details as that would constitute a monstrous spoiler. Suffice to say, like any farmer planning to work and working to plan, Tonio pulls off the scam. But our hero finds various downsides to his undrinkable wine skyrocketing in value. His newfound riches make the peasants vicious and jealous. Not only do they sic their mindless violent kids on him, he also receives disturbing visits from representatives of the Mafia and the Papacy. The comedy is dark and acerbic, even tougher on Southern Italians than Andrea Camilleri.
How will Antonio get out of the clutches of these formidable
institutions and return to a normal life in Paris? The action is well-paced and
the climax is a rocker that keeps us reading closely until the end. The
author’s style has verve and reading a mystery with an exotic location will
take the grateful reader out of “times of disruption” for a couple of hours.
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