The Darkest Winter by Carlo Lucarelli – blog tour

Translated by Joseph Farrell

Back in 2010 I read and reviewed Almost Blue, one of Carlo Lucarelli’s contemporary Italian police procedurals, which was highly original with a blind witness who ‘sees’ voices in colour. I always meant to read more by this author, who has written loads – and now I finally have. His newly translated novel from 2020, The Darkest Winter is one of his ‘De Luca’ series, of which he wrote an initial trilogy in the 1990s, which were adapted for Italian TV. In these books, the setting is Bologna, between 1943 and the immediate post WWII period, between the collapse of the Fascist government and the installation of the German Nazis creating an Italian puppet state.

Despite being part of a series, The Darkest Winter stands alone perfectly. There is no need to know Le Luca’s past except that he was considered a fine investigator in the police before being seconded to the Political Police, an appointment which was very much against his will, especially as the building in which the Commandante is now house doubles as a torture facility, something very against his personal credo. An introduction sets the historical scene of the much-bombed Bologna, which now, with the creation of the ‘Sperrzone’ in the historic centre – an area into which German soldiers were not routinely permitted, and the Allies would refrain from bombing theoretically, becoming a sort of ghetto as refugees flooded back into the safe city centre, including of course many working for the partisans.

As the novel begins, De Luca finds himself involved in investigating three murders: a professor shot through the eye, an engineer who was beaten to death, and a German corporal found in a flooded cellar rather gnawed upon by rats! The latter is the most troubling, as for each German soldier’s life taken, the Nazis take ten Italian hostages – and unless De Luca can solve his murder quickly and to the German Secretary’s satisfaction, they will be shot. It’s the dead engineer that he’s called to first – it was obvious that he’d been beaten elsewhere by the National Republican Guard or Black Brigade and moved to the narrow portico where he was found.

That’s why Rassetto, commander of the Autonomous Unit which included De Luca, had dispatched him. since he understood about these matters, to muddy the waters in the right way, seeing that some weeks previously the Black Brigade had left on their dead claims from the partisans written with office pencils on fragments of cream-coloured cards, like criminal records. We are doing a favour to some friends, De Luca, as a payback.

A witness had heard shots though, and it’s obvious to De Luca that there’s another potential murder close by, apart from the bloated body of the German soldier they find too. That body will be the shot Professor, and it’s there that De Luca will meet Petraca, who works for the Passport Office, who was passing by. He will become a key link, knowing the right people outside the law, as De Luca doggedly investigates the murders. However, it’s not just the Germans that De Luca finds himself effectively working for, he is under pressure, but reassures Petrarca,

“Relax, Petrarca, I’m not concerned with you eithee. Apart from routine matters. I now have three murders to investigate, and I think that’s quite enough.”
One commissioned by the Prefect and one by the Germans.
And now one by the Resistance.
Or almost.

From hereonin, things begin to get very complicated and the pressure is on.

Hauled in by the Germans, De Luca is given just a week by the Hauptsturmführer to solve the German corporal’s death. He also has other battles, he’s a bit of a hypochondriac, always thinking he was coming down with a fever, as it’s the dead of winter in November 1944, and his coat isn’t thick enough. Then there’s Vilma, Rassetto’s vamp of a secretary who, tired of her boss has set her sights on De Luca, who is not really interested bar usual manly responses to titillation, but finds he can use her to get information with the faint promise of sex to come!

Lucarelli has a fascination with this period of Italian history, and the detail in this novel is superb. Bologna’s narrow passageways and historic buildings come to life. The Teatro del Corso was really turned into a hostel for returned refugees, and their animals, and De Luca must visit it in search of answers for instance. As you will imagine, the German soldiers are harsh masters and De Luca must tread very carefully when out and about, especially when talking to those who are linked to the partisans – his police pass doesn’t guarantee that he won’t get attention from soldiers who appear machine-gun happy. Being no fan of them or the Fascist remnants, he has to tread a political fine line. But he is also putting his life on the line making contact with those allied to the partisans but he has a strong moral sense in seeking social justice which drives him.

De Luca is a splendid creation, and I’d like to read the earlier trilogy now. Lucarelli really immerses the reader in the life of his protagonist and his city, writing with such intelligence, making this wartime thriller an excellent read indeed.

Source – review copy – thank you! Open Borders Press hardback original, 352 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link (free UK P&P)