Mimi's Ghost: A Novel (Duckworth and the Italian Girls) - Softcover

Parks, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1628725745 ISBN 13: 9781628725742

Publisher: Arcade Publishing, 2015

Synopsis

The second Duckworth novel is "A wild and wacky thriller that's like sharing a roller-coaster ride with a suave maniac" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Morris Duckworth can't get over Massimina, or Mimi, as he likes to refers to her. But then, he should have thought of that before he kidnapped and killed her. Only now, living in Verona and married to Mimi's sister, does he appreciate how much he misses her and how blindly he has stumbled into a trap of fate. Struggling to adjust to his good fortune, with a lavish house and cushy job, our unsavory hero finds that his new success is rife with tribulation: not least his pushy bride's staggering sexual appetite and his nosy brother-in-law's meddling questions. So when he visits Mimi's grave and her charming photograph winks at him, he's ready for her advice.

Mimi seems to be suggesting a path to Christian redemption: he will help the poor African immigrants of Verona. But is his sudden altruism genuine or a cover for further malfeasance? And why, despite his apparent sincerity, are those who get in his charitable way so prone to "accidents"? The dark and funny sequel to Cara Massimina, Mimi's Ghost is the ultimate comedy of self-justification.

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About this title

From the Author

Tim Parks is the author of more than twenty novels and works of nonfiction. His novels include Europa, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His most recent work of nonfiction is Italian Ways: On and Off the Rails from Milan to Palermo. His essays have appeared regularly in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, for which he blogs. He lives in Italy.

From Publishers Weekly

Expatriate Englishman Morris Duckworth, the conman, serial murderer and psychopath last seen in Juggling the Stars, is back, in the egregious effulgence of his evil and charmed life. What is a literary fellow like British author Parks (Europa) doing with a slime like Morris? Having fun, writing a wild and wacky thriller that's like sharing a roller-coaster ride with a suave maniac. Morris is an inspired mixture of loony self-regard and stupidity fueled by obtuseness. Having fatally dispatched Massamina (Mimi) Trevesan, the heiress he kidnapped in the first book, evaded the law and even ingratiated himself with Mimi's family, Morris is now married to her sister, the voraciously libidinous Paola. He's living in a luxury condominium in Verona, swanning around in his Mercedes and battling with his brother-in-law for control of the family wine company. What makes Morris so fascinating is his utterly amoral mindset. Far from suffering true guilt, Morris engages in consummate self-justification. He believes Mimi has forgiven him for her murder, which was merely a reaction "to extreme circumstances." Exhibiting unmistakable signs of schizophrenia, he "sees" Mimi and talks to her, often by car phone. It's Mimi, he thinks, who advises him to dispatch three new victims. Parks applies a wicked imagination to his ingenious plot, getting Morris into one farcically dangerous situation after another. One need not have read the first book to enjoy the frissons of suspense in this one, and readers will hope they haven't seen the last of Morris and his bizarrely lethal adventures. (Feb.) Forecast: It may be his very proflicacy (10 novels and three nonfiction books) that has kept Parks from establishing an identity on this side of the Atlantic. With the right breaks, this very funny novel could find a niche in the mode established by Elmore Leonard.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Arcade Publishing
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1628725745
• ISBN 13: 9781628725742
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 324