The hunting season by Tom Benjamin - A review
In the sequel to the wonderful ‘A quiet death in Italy’, Bologna-based English private investigator Daniel Leicester is hired to find missing American truffle supertaster Ryan Lee.
The search leads Daniel to meet all the big players in the nearby Boscuri truffle scene, and by extension a few criminal gangs, illegal immigrants and an unscrupulous yet alluring television presenter.
It has to be said, that while Tom Benjamin’s writing is wonderful (and less direct than a lot of the stuff I typically read), in the first quarter of the book he is prone to giving us too much superfluous information about his adopted city, with the effect of slowing the pace, removing any real urgency and inadvertently disengaging us from what could be a solid setup.
Now this is a problem common with many authors who use a location almost as a character, and one in which it is tricky to strike a balance. While these types of books should have a hint of the travel guide, the key is to weave it into the action and have it add value, not, as with the start of chapter three, let it take over.
In the author's defence though, as with the first book, he is more than capable of getting the balance right and when he weaves in past national history and contemporary cultural mores, alongside an expanding investigation it is a captivating read, allowing the reader and story to build momentum.
When that happens, and Benjamin hits his stride, the writing is fabulous, the story immersive and the peril goes from mild to ‘I can’t believe he just did that!’
From a foot chase that reminded me of Hot Fuzz, to the realisation of a mid-forties man now having to brandish a gun, and alleyway hand-to-hand combat, there is a fantastic mixture of action to accompany the more thoughtful side of detection and I felt that the author really sold the frantic desperation of Daniel Leicester as the book hurtled towards its climax.
Despite any minor flaws I felt it had at the beginning, ‘The hunting season’ is mandatory reading for any Italophiles, and I would certainly recommend it to fans of crime fiction. Foreign-based or not.
