First Sentence:
The murderous hands work unhurriedly in the dim light.
Christmas
is coming to Naples, a city now under a fascist regime and where people live in
tremendous poverty in contrast to the luxurious apartment in which the bodies
of a militia officer and his wife have been found. While searching out the killer, or killers,
Commisaario Ricciardi is concerned for his elderly former nurse and torn
between two women, while Brigadier Maione is dealing with a crisis of his own.
One
does not enter gently into this story.
Instead, one is nearly overwhelmed by the visual and narrative contrasts
that attract and repel us. However, the
one thing one does not do is stop reading.
The
two principal characters of Ricciardi and Maione are such wonderful contrasts
to one another, yet they balance each other perfectly. Maione provides a bit of light, whereas
Ricciardi believes himself to be the dark due to his ability? curse? gift? of
the Deed, which causes him to see the final seconds of those who’ve died by
violence. What’s nice is that these
final seconds don’t help Ricciardi solve the crimes, as the words only make
sense in the end.
Supporting
them is the always delightful Dr. Moto and his newly adopted dog; Bambinelle,
Maione’s informant; Rosa, who has been with Ricciardi since his childhood; and
Erica, the object of unrequited (so far) love on both parts. It is the balance between being a police
procedural, and being a book about people and their relationships, that help
make this book so compelling.
The
thoughts of the killer are chilling.
While this is a device that can be intrusive, it works here and provides
a frightening look at the dichotomy of the killer’s mind. In complete contrast Livia, the wealthy widow
in love with Ricciardi, provide us a sense of place and a view of the people of
Naples, “Waking up to the calls of the strolling vendors, the noise rising from
the streets, the songs. And the smells,
the thousands of pots bubbling busily away, the thousands of frying pans
sizzling, the pastry shops competing to present their masterpieces. Everyone had dreamed up a calling, a
profession; every one of them was trying to eke out a living.”
There
are two principal grounding elements to the story; the crashing of the waves
representing conflict, and Christmas with all the emotions surrounding it,
which provides wonderful segues to increasingly more serious aspects of the
story—“Christmas is an emotion. It’s a
strong as a pounding heart, as light as a fluttering eyelash. But it can be swept away by a gust of wind
and never come at all.” de Giovanni does
a wonderful job of linking traditions of the present to those of the distant
past, and of teaching us that about which we may not have known, such as the
symbolism of, and meaning behind each figural element of the nativity.
And,
of course, being set in Italy, there is food—“boiling posts of the maccaronari, or macaroni vendors, and
the posts of oil for the fried-pizza man, who also fried piping-hot panzarotti turnovers and potato
croquettes…” Yet, there is also a
wonderful definition of faith—“Our faith wasn’t made to erect barriers, walls,
or iron bars between us and love; it was made to increase the presence of love
in our lives, so that we can give of ourselves and live in a state of
communion…”
“By My Hand” is a more serious book than its predecessors as it relates to the
politics of the time: one senses the changes and coming threat with each
book. It is also a very good murder
mystery/police procedural. However, at
its heart it is a book about people and relationships, and motives. The motive here is a sad one, yet the
resolutions of the conflicts related to the principle characters will warm your
heart, and make you anxious to read the next book.
BY MY
HAND (Hist Mys-Comm. Ricciardi/Brig. Maione-Naples-1931) – VG+
De
Giovanni, Maurizio – 5th in series
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