Italy

An Enigma by the Sea by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini

By Paul Burke

13 February, 2026

Translated by Gregory Dowling — A lot of Italian crime fiction in English is dark, mafia-related or snowbound. Manzini, Carlotto, de Cataldo and Roberto Saviano spring to mind. The Fruttero and Lucentini novels are different, lighter, witty, slightly eccentric and colourful but no less steeped…

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The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan

By Vicki Weisfeld

28 January, 2026

From The Da Vinci Code to The Flatey Enigma, we’ve seen how popular thrillers about decoding ancient texts can be, and Gilly Macmillan’s The Burning Library joins the category. If you can go with the idea that two ancient societies of women have been in…

Features

Marina Cafè Noir 2025 - Sardinia's crime and literature festival

By crimefictionlover

6 June, 2025

What better way to spend the summer solstice than at a noir fiction festival on the Mediterranean. From Friday 20 to Sunday 22 June, Marina Cafè Noir returns to Cagliari on the island of Sardinia. The terrace of the Bastion of Saint Remy is the…

Kindle Print Reviews

Last Night at Villa Lucia by Simon McCleave

By Vicki Weisfeld

8 August, 2024

What could be more appealing than a murder mystery set in an elegant villa high on a hill overlooking the Tuscan countryside? Prolific crime novelist Simon McCleave’s Last Night at Villa Lucia feels like a vacation from the first page, as the villa’s English owner…

Kindle Print Reviews

The Venus of Salò by Ben Pastor

By Erin Britton

4 July, 2024

It’s October 1944 and all is far from well in the Republic of Salò. As the last bastion of Fascism in Italy, the tranquil setting on the shore of Lake Garda belies the turmoil currently engulfing the seat of the German-backed puppet government. As the…

Features

The Red Door season 2: Noir Italiano on Walter Presents

By crimefictionlover

12 September, 2023

Who better to investigate a murder than a murder victim, right? That’s the concept behind the Italian crime show The Red Door – La Porta Rossa – and it’s a good one. In the UK, Channel 4’s foreign crime show streaming service Walter Presents has…

Kindle Print Reviews

Foul Deeds and Fine Dying by Marco Malvaldi

By Erin Britton

6 June, 2023

Translated by Howard Curtis — Is there any better means of returning from the dead than appearing in a murder mystery? I expect not, particularly if the murder mystery in question is of the locked room variety. Italian businessman and cookery writer Pellegrino Artusi (1820–1911)…

Kindle Print Reviews

Tina, Mafia Soldier by Maria Rosa Cutrufelli

By Sonja van der Westhuizen

23 March, 2023

Translated by Robin Pickering-Iazzi — Fact and fiction fuse in feminist Italian author Maria Rosa Cutrufelli’s first novel, Tina, Mafia Soldier, which is also the author’s first to be translated into English. Originally published in 1994, Tina Cannizzaro’s story was inspired by that of Emanuela…

Crime Fiction Lover

An Enigma by the Sea by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini

The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan

Marina Cafè Noir 2025 - Sardinia's crime and literature festival

Last Night at Villa Lucia by Simon McCleave

The Venus of Salò by Ben Pastor

The Red Door season 2: Noir Italiano on Walter Presents

Foul Deeds and Fine Dying by Marco Malvaldi

Tina, Mafia Soldier by Maria Rosa Cutrufelli

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