In the contemporary scene of
the writers of detective novels , specializing in the classical genre , Peter
Lovesey has a prominent place. Born in Whitton , in 1936 , Lovesey has spent
many vicissitudes in 1944 his house was destroyed during a German bombing ; had
a passion for sports and dabbled in athletics , but soon realized it was not
his way ; attended the University where he met his current wife ; he devoted
himself to teaching but then you chose the career of full-time writer . He
lives near Chichester. He signed with his real name all his novels except three
, signed instead with the name of Lear Petert . His son Phil writes detective
novels .
His series are centered on
characters such as Sergeant Cribb , the agent Thackeray , Bertie (ie Albert,
Prince of Wales ) and Peter Diamond. His novels
earned many awards : in 1976 with Swing, Swing Together
He won the Grand Prix de Litérature policière ;
in 1978 he won the Silver Dagger Award for her novel Waxwork ( repeated in 1995 with The
Summon , and in 1996 with Bloodhounds
) ; four years later he won the coveted Gold Dagger Award for her novel The False Inspector Dew . She also won
the Prix du Roman d' Aventures with the novel
A Case of Spirits, the
Macavity Award with Bloodhounds (
repeated in 2004 with The House Sitter
) and with the same novel also the Barry Award . He also won the Cartier
Diamond Dagger Award in 2004, and the Agatha Award for Lifetime Achievement in
2008. In 1988 , his Rough Cider has
been selected in the final five of ' MWA Edgar Award , and again in 1996, The Summons .
Bloodhounds , translated
and published in Italy as Il Signore dell'Enigma ("The Lord of the Enigma ") , is dedicated to
John Dickson Carr. [1]
A group of loyal readers of
thrillers , known as the The Hounds , come together in an underground chapel of
the Church of SS. Michael and Paul, at Bath . They are : Milo Motion , Hilda
Childmark , Jessica Shaw, Polly Wycherley , Rupert Darby, Sid Towers. At one
day also , Shirley -Ann Miller joins to
these. She made himself known for her versatility in the kind of knowledge and
for her kindness . The Hounds occupe themselves principally about Mystery , while somehow they abhor the rest .
Inside, Shirley -Ann
recognizes dynamics certainly not idyllic , that make well understand how ,
beyond the similar knowledges, the affiliates to the group are not all united
by feelings of close friendship : she already sees the day when Rupert ports
downstairs her dog , provoking the ires of someone, especially Hilda Chilmark,
an old heir of an illustrious family fallen into disrepair, who not mindful about this, treats others as if
they were a notch below her . The attitude of rejection towards Rupert and his
dog , is accentuated at another occasion , during which both Sid Towers and
Milo Motion ( both Carr fans) would have to bring along a copy of The Hollow
Man , to discuss it into the group , and also read the Conference by Dr. Fell.
At this occasion, just the lady Chilmark has an attack of hyperventilation ,
and then recovers by the intervention of Jessica Show that after she eliminated
a paper bag where Motion kept his copy of the Carr, she provides to Chilmark to
restore her proper breathing. The fact is that the incident provides an
opportunity to introduce into the copy of the novel by Carr , owned by Syd
Tower, a rare stamp from 1 penny black , stolen a few days earlier from a city
museum , theft which had been announced in advance by a message in the form of
quatrain , and that he had alerted the city police : the same Peter Diamond ,
superintendent of police of Bath, and head of the homicide departments , had
provided some of his men to Inspector Wigfull, including Inspector Julia
Hargreves, to find the stolen stamp.
At the moment in which the
stamp reappears, at the meeting of The Hounds, and after the attack of
hyperventilation of Hilda Chilmark, the suspect (also in the reader ) that one
of the hounds may have been the thief of the stamp, creeps.
Syd , after a confrontation
with the other hounds , he decides to go to the Police Station and report the
discovery in his book, which he swears he never left from the time when he took
on board his boat where he lives . The
fact is that Syd , after denouncing it in most interviews, and be able to
demonstrate that he was not the theft of pennies, returns to the boat owned by
him in the company of John Wigfull , and , after opening the lock with which he
holds closed the cabin , he finds dead Milo Motion: the lock is of a special
type , German, with only two keys that can open it , and one key of both
fell in the water where the boat is
anchored more a year before ; The cabin has no other openings , if not another
door that is bolted from the inside , however, by a number of bolts ; Syd
swears that the only key to open the lock was always in his hands , and at the
same time professes her innocence . Further investigation will show that he is
not the killer . How did Milo Motion to enter into the booth and why? How did
someone kill him and be able not only to open a padlock Syd swears that it has
closed , but also to close it, for the physical impossibility that the lock may
have other key to open it? And above all, why was he killed ?
The most incredible thing is
that the impossible murder appears to have been previously announced by another
quatrain , whose meaning is incomprehensible before subsequently put in report to the novel by Carr. It ‘s clear at
this point that if someone had previously suggested that the thief could be one
of the Hounds, now there must be between them even a murderer , if the murderer
is not also the thief.
Various hypotheses will make
their way on the identity of the thief, also able to explain the murder , but
the resolution will come only at the end of the novel, after we will admire two
hypotheses about the solution of the Locked Room (at the second , Diamond will
destroy the first by Wigfull , after the discovery by police divers of the first
key of the padlock ) for brilliance and flair , after a second murder will
throw more sand in the eyes of the investigators ( Rupert Darby will be killed
, awkward and unpopular man to most people) ; and after that someone will begin
to suspect a blackmail for the detriment of another member of the Hounds,
uncomfortable for a pregnancy and the birth of a secret son , always
gravitating in the group of The Hounds .
The novel has not a granted
end, because two tight end are taking place: the first , with two culprits
almost sure but announced too , and another , the true final, with a guilty not
granted , not far from the action and at the same time never kept in mind of
the investigation, and brought under the spotlight , only after the final
reflection by Diamond.
Spectacular and beautiful
novel , it presents an incredible variety of characters (and thus driving ) ,
even within a narrative structure , already consolidated and addressed in other
novels by other writers: in fact, the so-called association of The Hounds , formed
by readers and passionate lovers of thrillers , is only the last in order of
time , among the many that have preceded it : suffice it to say that Blacks
Widowers by Isaac Asimov , or The Seven Solvers in Invisible Green by John Sladek
, or even the three friends mystery fans , who will face off in Gammal Ost by
Ulf Durling .
It is necessary to recall that Lovesey , in the novel
also introduces a vein decidedly humorous , and ironic ( just remember that The
Hounds meet themselves in an underground chapel of a church , nor they were the
followers of a sect , within collide rivalries , hatreds , and are committed
thefts , blackmails and murders : a satanic cult , almost) : it is as if the
author himself ironized about who takes terribly seriously the Mystery Genre.
Lovesey , however, impresses
in this novel, his recognizable
trademark : a tribute to John Dickson Carr, recalled from beginning to end ,
through allusions , quotations and conferences , which have as a reference, the
most novel reminded by Carr : The Hollow Man (The Three Coffins). This giveaway
is not only formal but also substantial because is processed a double Locked
Room enigma : a murder in a cabin of a boat, hermetically sealed from the
outside by a padlock thief-proof , and
from the inside by another door closed by
a bolt ; the appearance of a rare stamp , stolen from a museum, in a
book that the owner swears he never deposited elsewhere ( and he is not the
murderer ! ) .
Added to this is the mood
light which permeates the novel, the humor always present , the tumult of the
suspects , the true and false tracks , the crackling inventions that are never
final , but always leave a second chance to reasoning.
Unlike by other authors who
keep up rytm with the action , Lovesey
fails to attract the reader's attention (which doesn’t fool till the end ) only
with the his ideas. Indeed , the fact that in twenty pages from the end,
Lovesey indicates a possible suspect , it is not for me to be put in relation
with the tendency of some writers of the old school to use the last few pages ,
as a kind of summary that explains the facts earlier; for me, instead, the
author is launching another false bait, so that the ultimate truth is found elsewhere
: it is the old assumption by Agatha Christie , whereby because the picture of
the situation can be said to be solved at all, it is necessary that all pieces
of the puzzle fall into place , not in any way forcing their inclusion.
The only thing that leaves
here and there dumbfounded is the hidden explanation of a particular event,
not communicated to the reader immediately and instead only revealed at a later
time (the splashes of white paint not
only on the basque by Rupert but also on the coat of fur of his dog, which had
not been brought by him to the inauguration of the painting exhibition ), even
if you immediately understand its scope : it holds high the reader's attention
on the contextual assumption, until it
is revealed the hidden detail , which it leads to a solution diametrically
different, though not definitive as regards the discovery of the killer.
Lovesey 's attention about
the personalities of the actors in the drama , most importantly , is not at all
related , and this is demonstrated by the influence that all the characters
have in the course of the narrative : even what would seem to be the only
person not to can be inserted into the group of be suspected , because the
only joined the group of The Hounds
after, will play a very important function albeit indirect , and this person
will enter by force in the final solution , although not personally .
So in the novel , the
trend of action will see the beginning coincident with the end and vice versa.Pietro De Palma
[1] As Carr lost his home in
World War II in an air raid, also Lovesey lost his home in 1944, destroyed by a
V1 Flying Bomb.
