Il Mistero di Bianca Rossi by Pietro Lamparelli

Lady Bowen Falls in Milford Sound: thanks to Lonely Planet 

Title: Il Mistero di Bianca Rossi

Author: Pietro Lamparelli

Publisher: not known 

Source book: Photo Finish by Ngaio Marsh (Inspector Alleyn #31)

In a fancy architect designed house on a small island in a remote lake in New Zealand, Inspector Alleyn finds an interesting book on a poorly lit top shelf of Montagu Reece’s practically unused new library: Il Mistero di Bianca Rossi (The Mystery of Bianca Rossi). Apparently it belongs to someone called MV Rossi whoever he, or she, may be. 

Although he doesn’t speak Italian all that well, Alleyn settles down to read the book. And good for him, because when I was learning Italian we went straight from the present tense to the pluperfect and things got extremely complicated very quickly.

Pietro Lamparelli tells us that years ago a woman called Bianca Rossi was murdered. By her husband to be, or her brand new husband? I forget whether they were already married. But he discovered a passionate letter from her lover and flew into a murderous passion, stabbing her through the heart. As you do. A nasty feud has since grown between the Rossi family and the Pepitone family and shows no sign of ending. So could this fictional book provide an important plot point for our source book?

Also discovered on the top shelf is another book called Il Voce (The Voice); an enthusiastic biography in Italian of the world renowned opera singer Isabella Pepitone, known as La Sommita. It’s lavishly illustrated with photographs of La Sommita from early childhood to adult success receiving a standing ovation at a royal performance of Faust.

And there’s an autobiography by La Sommita, well, obviously she hasn’t written it herself. Her ‘protector’, Mr Reece, tells us he regrets not having read the book. I wonder. 

This is definitely not one of the better Inspector Alleyn books. Unless you have read most of the series and are determined to complete the set, I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s partly an island cut off from the mainland murder mystery, partly a Sicilian family feud, partly a tale of the traditionally histrionic opera singer, partly a plea not to build on New Zealand’s pristine countryside, and partly it feels wrong because characters we first met in the 1930s have been flung too vigorously into the 1980s: Troy wearing jumpsuits! Oh and don’t forget the creepy photographer. A slightly strange mixture. Could it be there’s too much plot?

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Another not very good Inspector Alleyn book is Last Ditch (#29). It features Ricky Alleyn, son of Rory and Troy, who is apparently a very young don and he’s decided to spend some time on a fictional Channel Island in order to write a book. Do we learn anything about the book? Is there a plot and is there a title? Of course not. Just a thick pile of handwritten manuscript. Although there may be a seductive or elegant woman character who is clearly based on the thoroughly irritating Julia Pharamond, who Ricky has fallen for, hook, line and sinker. Julia’s husband Jasper, who appears to hang around drinking coffee or cocktails depending on the time of day and generally looking glamorous, is a mathematician, and is said to be writing a book too. It’s about the binomial theorem, which I think is algebra or something. Again no title. What a pity. 

And, completely off topic, would you believe it? Miss Slater is shown teaching the binomial theorem to the Upper Sixth in Bride Leads the Chalet School (#27). I had never noticed that until after I wrote this post. I’m not very mathematically minded.

Plus, would you believe it, Professor Moriarty of Sherlock Holmes fame, has also written a treatise ‘upon the Binomial Theorem’. Who could possibly have imagined this bit of mathematics would be so popular in fiction? Certainly not me.

I don’t recommend you bother to read Last Ditch any more than Photo Finish. The plot involves an unlikely drug smuggling scheme, some deeply unpleasant characters, and despite being set in the late 1970s features zoot suits and acetylene lamps. The nanny is also said to have a reticule which, even allowing for Julia Pharamond’s facetious style of speech, is ridiculously out of date. 

Another example I think, of Ngaio Marsh dragging her characters into the future and not getting the details quite right. I do wish she had just set all her books in the 1930s. 

Gisborne: thanks to Robin Bush/Getty Images via Lonely Planet