AN ENIGMA BY THE SEA

A series of unfortunate events rocks a coastal Italian village.

Fruttero and Lucentini’s third mystery, originally published in Italy 35 years ago, dives into the everyday concerns and quirks of the residents of the idyllic Gualdana, on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The omniscient narrator has an arch, gossipy voice more reminiscent of Austen or Trollope than Hammett or even Christie, with a mildly simmering plot to match. Not that the anecdotes sprinkled throughout are cozy. Like the story of Signor Lopez disemboweled by a boar, they often run to the macabre. There are dozens of characters and nearly as many plot threads, elaborately described in an appendix and in an early footnote that offers a preview of the pleasantly discursive storytelling. The first major event is the disappearance of young Brit Colin Graham, whose family vacations annually in Tuscany. A bit of community panic and a search follows before he’s eventually found unharmed. Readers will need to wait well over a hundred pages for the next cataclysmic event, a car crash. In between, there’s an invasion of mice, a scourge of rats, and a damaging den of porcupines. Not long after the car crash, one of the angry drivers washes ashore. An investigation, such as it is, follows, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Papi and his team of carabinieri.

A juicily acerbic mystery that’s more lurid soap opera than whodunit.