Mystery set in Tuscany, Italy (19th century sleuthing and cooking)

24th June 2014

The Art of Killing Well by Marco Malvaldi (translated by Howard Curtis) – a mystery set in Tuscany.

Pellegrino Artusi was the real life writer of the first Italian cook book. At the end of the 19th century he travelled the length and breadth of the new country compiling `The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well’ – the first person to bring together recipes from all across the various regions of Italy.

Marco Malvadi has very cleverly taken this historic fact and constructed a Poirotesque mystery starring Artusi. Artusi is invited to Baron Bonaiuti’s Tuscan villa for a weekend’s boar hunt and to check out the secrets of his kitchen. The Baron’s family and the other guests are an eclectic mix of the bizarre and the eccentric. The butler is murdered – but is he really the intended victim? Someone then tries to shoot the Baron, but who and why? There are any number of possible suspects – each with his/her own secrets and motivations…

The local village detective is baffled and, guess what, Artusi has to help him solve the mystery. This he does in painstaking style until all is revealed in a well contrived denouement.

‘The Art of Killing Well’ is a very well constructed read that, as mentioned, is reminiscent of Poirot in style. The characters, and the environment in which they exist, are both well drawn but of a very different age for the modern reader brought up on, for example, Swedish Noir – a quaint (but agreeable) throw-back in time. The forensics and science employed by Artusi are very advanced – but only for the age in which they exist yet they feel pretty primitive to the modern reader. It is interesting to see how much has changed…

The same quaintness applies to the larger than life characters Artusi encounters at the villa – from the two dysfunctional sons (one a poet of dubious ability, the other a philanderer…), through the maiden aunts, and through the staff, to the other guests. The descriptions are wittingly written and well observed – if a tad larger than life. Malvadi deserves much praise for his writing style (as does Howard Curtis for the translation).

A very nice final feature of the book is the inclusion in the final chapter of a number of Artusi’s recipes from his book. Most look extremely tempting!

A book that I much enjoyed and have chuckled over a few times in my head since completing it.

Tony for the TripFiction team

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