There’s a bit of Italian in all of us – don’t you think? Who of us hasn’t felt a little flutter at an Italian waiter’s wink, or, maybe an attractive Latin lady’s smile? Italy is sunshine, laughter, family values, beautiful people and the Mafia. Richard Walmsley’s series of crime/thrillers capture all of this, perhaps because he spent several years teaching English at Lecce University Southern Italy.
The Commissario Beppe Stancato series: The Case of the Sleeping Beauty, A Close Encounter With Mushrooms and The Vanishing Physicist are set in Abbruzzo, whilst the others are set in Puglia.
The books are all written in a typical and attractive Italian style – reminiscent of Giovanni Guareschi, for those familiar with Don Camillo, and with just a touch of Montalbano. The plots are clever with surprising twists and the books are downright funny as we experience life in rural Italy. Some of the (very likeable) characters reappear in the different books – Rosaria and family in the Puglia books and Beppe and his police team in the others, however each book can be read independently.
If you feel like a really good read – give them a try. Personally Leonardo’s Trouble With Molecules is my favourite.
Others in the series:
Leonardo’s Trouble With Molecules
Dr K Thompson, author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01A7DM42Q http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A7DM42Q
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