By David Wagner
If you write a murder mystery there are certain requirements. To begin with, you must have a dead body pop up somewhere, usually at the beginning of the book. Then you start to develop your characters and begin throwing out clues, both false and real. Along the way are the clever twists and turns. Tension builds, leading to an exciting climax. These are the basic building blocks needed when creating the story which is, in essence, the heart of the book. But there is always all that other stuff that you throw in which doesn’t directly contribute to the plot. Call it atmosphere, if you’d like, or setting, or background, but you can’t write a book without it. Also, readers expect it.
Especially if the action is set in Italy.
I’ve found, after turning out eight books in the Rick Montoya Italian Mystery series, that it is impossible to write more than a few pages before some of that other stuff shows up. The trick is not getting so deeply into it that the reader loses track of the story.
Let’s start with history, since Italy has a lot of it. When Rick, my protagonist, rolls into a new town for one of his adventures, I have to tell the reader something about its past. The history of Volterra, the Tuscan city of the first book, goes back to the fascinating and mysterious Etruscans, so I needed to write something about them. After the Etruscans the Romans ran the place, and you certainly can’t neglect the Romans. History inevitably gets you into structures and architecture, which for Volterra starts with the city walls whose stone layers reveal the past like the rings of an ancient tree. Then there are the ruins of a Roman amphitheater and the medieval town square.
Bassano del Grappa, a town at the foot of the Alps where book three takes place, has more recent history which simply couldn’t be neglected. It was on the front lines during the fighting in World War I, almost within reach of the Austrian cannons. I had to mention that. Orvieto, in book four, is where the pope fled to after the sack of Rome in 1527. His papal palace is still there next to the cathedral, as is the double-helix well he had dug to survive a siege. In this case, though, I was able to work the well into the story.
Where ever Rick goes I note street names, since they are a great way to learn about the history of a town. Some are easy, like a Via Garibaldi that every city in Italy has, but others are more obscure and focused on local events or personages. To me these are fascinating details, but as interesting as they might be, I can’t dwell on them too much or the reader will wander too much from the plot.
Then there is art. Admittedly many of my murders are connected to some work of art, but sometimes Rick, or one of the secondary characters, just wants to enjoy some art work for its own sake. In book seven, he wanders the halls of the spectacular museum located in Urbino’s ducal palace, once home of Federico da Montefeltro, a soldier of fortune and true Renaissance man. Rick can’t just walk past these masterpieces, a few of them have to be at least minimally described to the reader, even though such descriptions don’t serve to move along the story line. Book five finds Rick in Mantova, overflowing with art from the court of the Gonzaga family. One scene takes place in the Palazzo Te, a masterpiece of Mannerist architecture and art. The reader marvels at it along with Rick and the other characters, before returning to the investigation.
Finally, most important on the list of “other stuff” is food. British detectives can get away with a sausage roll and tea before getting back to their detecting, but that simply doesn’t work in Italy. I can’t just write “then Rick had lunch.” At least two courses are required at every meal, and one of them must be pasta. Since each of his adventures is in a different Italian town, why not taste the local specialties? Will this help Rick track down the murderer? Of course it won’t, but he strongly believes that you can’t solve a mystery on an empty stomach. Surprise, surprise: his meals are mentioned in at least half of the comments I get from readers. They all want to eat what Rick is having, and I can’t blame them for that.
History, art, and food – it’s like taking a trip to Italy. But don’t forget that murder investigation.