The Murdered Banker

Recommended for fans of Italian crime fiction and for readers who enjoy well-written, well-plotted vintage crime.

The Murdered Banker is the first in a series of mysteries written in the 1930s. The main character in this series is Police Inspector Carlo DeVincenzi, Commissioner of Public Safety in Milan, whose raison d’être as a police officer is "an interest in human justice." However, de Vincenzi often finds it difficult to solve his cases because of reluctant witnesses who may tell a part of what they know, but for their own reasons tend to hold back on information that would actually allow DeVincenzi to do his job in a timely manner. That is definitely the case in The Murdered Banker, which starts out with a dead body in the show more apartment of one of the Inspector's friends, Aurigi, who, coincidentally, just happens to have been at the police station visiting DeVincenzi at the time the body is found.

As he begins his investigation, everything adds up to Aurigi as chief suspect, but through his "intuition and psychological impressions" the Inspector knows that he's the wrong guy. As other suspects are brought into the case, each with his or her own secrets, de Vincenzi realizes that if he doesn't get to the truth of the matter, the innocent may be caught up in the "machine that will grind them up." His mission -- to save the innocent, and to bring the guilty to justice.

The Murdered Banker is a solid mystery story that is not only enjoyable, but also very well laid out in terms of buried secrets that could easily serve as motive, creating a group of possible suspects whom de Vincenzi must eliminate one by one to solve the crime. By the time the actual culprit is discovered, it's a rather eye-opening moment, something I look forward to in any mystery novel. Here it's done right, and done well, although sometimes the writing itself can be a bit overdone, but a) it's the first in a series which is often touchy, and b) the crime and the investigation are both so well plotted that it's forgivable.

You can read a longer post here if you're at all interested. I love these old crime novels!! show less

There seemed to be elements of Poirot (grey cells make an appearance) and a bit of Maigret. I had a hard time with the style of it. Maybe because of the period it was written in (the 1930s) or maybe because of the translation. So some of the things people said or their exclamations didn't make sense to me. At the end there was an error with the clock. I'm not sure this is a mystery you should try to solve yourself, but rather just try to keep up with De Vincenzi and enjoy the visit to Italy.

Confermo il mio giudizio dopo questo secondo libro di De Angelis. La lettura é piacevolissima e non ci si stanca mai di andare a zonzo per la Milano di quegli anni.