Mediterranean Noir

The author of Total Chaos, Jean-Claude Izzo was born in Marseilles in 1945 and died at the age of 55. This is book one of three featuring Detective Fabio Montale – a compelling character trying to deal honestly in a city marred by corruption, racism and organised crime courtesy of the mafia. The sprawling city is the essential backdrop to this novel – both squalid and beautiful, especially when seen from Fabio’s little fishing boat which is moored in front of his cottage by the sea. To say he has a complicated love life is an understatement – with at least five women involved with him and the book’s plot – all of whom he seems to be in love with. He is a community policeman of middling rank, trying to keep a lid on simmering racial tensions and at war with other police departments as much as the drugs and arms dealers who run the large sprawling estates and who, in turn, are pawns being played by Far Right politicians. It is a fascinating world and Fabio is a strong character who could easily have slipped into crime along with the two best friends of his youth, Ugo and Manio who make brief appearances at the start of the book. If it is difficult to keep up with his women, it is even more impossible to follow the labyrinthine relationships and changing allegiances of the the baddies. Even Fabio seems to admit to some considerable confusion by the end. But as he stands naked in his house, looking out at the Mediterranean with a glass of Tuscan red in his hand, I was glad to have made the journey with him and will look out for the companion two books in this trilogy. If you can’t have a holiday in France this summer, this is the next best thing…