Dead Man in Naples - Hardcover

Pearce, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1569476071 ISBN 13: 9781569476079

Publisher: Soho Constable, 2009

Synopsis

Lionel Scampion, British consul in Naples, has been stabbed to death while bicycling through the piazza of the Porta Carmine. According to his sister, he had no enemies. The Neapolitan police suggest he was murdered by a bicycle-racing rival. In Naples, every mystery is attributed to the Camorra, a powerful criminal society; could its members be involved? Scampion enthusiastically backed the Italian invasion of Libya and befriended army officers of the newly formed Italian Bicycle Brigade. Now the Foreign Office in London has heard that international politics emanating from Rome might have been involved. Seymour of the Special Branch is sent to find out the motive for the murder and, incidentally, to identify the culprit.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Pearce was raised in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, trained as a Russian interpreter, and had an academic career in England. He now lives in London.

Reviews

Pearce's sixth mystery to feature Scotland Yard's Sandor Seymour (after 2008's A Dead Man in Barcelona) deftly mixes humor with a whodunit plot. A couple of years before WWI, the Foreign Office sends Seymour to Italy to unofficially investigate the stabbing death of Lionel Scampion, a British consular representative. As a diplomat, Scampion wasn't altogether satisfactory, going so far in his enthusiasm as to volunteer to fight for Italy in its war with Libya. Seymour must consider a hypothesis raised at the inquest that Scampion's murder had to do with a rivalry between bicycling clubs as well as the possibility that the killer acted from political or personal motives. As in the author's better-known Mamur Zapt series (The Mark of the Pasha, etc.), Pearce does better at clever word play and investing his characters with charming foibles than establishing clues to buttress a fair-play solution. Still, this entry stands as the best to date in the Dead Man series. (Dec.)
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British Special Branch officer Seymour is sent to Naples to investigate consulate official Lionel Scampion’s murder. To suggest he is merely on vacation, he travels with his fiancée, Chantale. Did Scampion, an avid bicyclist, die at the hand of a racing rival? Or did he anger a member of the powerful Camorra, a Mafia-like criminal society? Through talking to people and decoding a lottery ticket, Seymour identifies Scampion’s killer and the motive for the crime. Taking place during the Italian-Libyan war in the early 1900s, the story intertwines details of the Naples lottery, the war, bicycling, the Camorra, and daily life in Naples into a leisurely paced but involving story. Told from multiple points of view (the numerous characters are a bit difficult to keep straight), the novel nevertheless captures the mood of early-twentieth-century Italy. Pearce is also the author of the Mamur Zapt series. --Sue O'Brien

Edition details

• Publisher: Soho Constable
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1569476071
• ISBN 13: 9781569476079
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256