‘Valsesia - Juliette’ by Andrea Beltrami - A review
Billed as a thriller in the Italian alps, ‘Valsesia - Juliette’ is on the face of it comparable to Manzini’s Rocco Schiavone series, however because of the manner of the deaths and incorporating a BDSM underworld beyond that of greed or your usual type of organised crime protagonist, this story is likely not to appeal to the more ‘bella italia’ crowd (if indeed Manzini’s books ever did).
But enough about that. In this story, Carabinieri Marshal Dino Mazzone is called to investigate the brutal sexualised death of a local man, and his only clue is a quick phone call to a local dominatrix named Red Sonia.
Doing his duty, the Marshal investigates but has his doubts. Only when Sonia turns up at the victim’s house soon after, while he is there looking for further evidence, things don’t look good for her.
They found another body, which was also sexually tortured, and the links heavily influenced the investigation, hinting at underground sexual deviation. Lacking knowledge in this area, the naïve Dino leans on Sonia’s contacts and knowledge to investigate. The only issue is that as the investigation stalls, and more bodies appear, Dino’s superiors remove him from the case.
Determined to see justice done, he continues anyway, discovering the sickening link between the victims, but before he can do anything else, things become complicated as Sonia’s old life intervenes and Dino has to choose between seeing justice done or a crime committed.
Despite the awful translation, certainly done on the cheap with a web translator (which failed to pick up singular third-person differences in gender and rendering some sentences or paragraphs incomprehensible), and the ridiculously long chapters, I just couldn’t put this book down.
It won’t be for everyone, but if Beltrami had a decent editor and translator, this book would have been a perfect release for a publisher like Corylus (at certain points it made me think of Óskar Guðmundsson).
Be prepared to work hard at reading this, but for fans of Italian crime, despite its many floors, it hit the spot for me.
