INTERNATIONALE

Following the Clive James article featured by Peter at Detectives beyond Borders John Sutherland in the Sunday Times wrote yet another article about "the humble detective novel crossing national boundaries like never before."

It was not a fully comprehensive review, but made the significant statment that "the Italians, it would seem, beat the world in detective fiction as serenely as they do on the football pitch."

Brunetti, Montalbano, Zen, Guarnaccia, Sciortino and Negro sound as if they would be as good on the soccer pitch as they are on the page.

"The implicit, false premise in much of Anglo-Saxon detective fiction is that crime can be cleared up. The disillusioned Italians think differently. It makes for great detective fiction."

I have to agree with this assessment although at the moment I am really enjoying Aussie Peter Temple and The Broken Shore. I thought not another lonely detective with a sad past, but Joe Cashin is interesting and the plot line has potential.