These Dark Things

Captain Natalia Monte #1

by Jan Merete Weiss

When a beautiful college student is found murdered in the catacombs beneath a monastary, Captain Natalia Monte of the Carabinieri is assigned to investigate. Could the killer be a professor the student had been sleeping with? A blind monk who loved her? Or perhaps a member of the brutal Napali criminal organization, the Camorra? As Natalia pursues her investigation, the crime families of Naples go to war over garbage-hauling contracts; and all across the city heaps of trash pile up, uncollected. When one of Natalia's childhood friends is caught up in the violence, her loyalties are tested, and each move she makes threatens her own life and the lives of those she loves.

“When Jan Merete Weiss's Captain Natalia Monte investigates the murder of a beautiful young university student, she must thread an uneasy path between childhood loyalties, religious superstition, corrupt officials, growing piles of garbage, and warring factions of an entrenched Camorra.  Weiss has done her homework, walked the pestilent streets, prowled the catacombs below the city, and created a thoroughly human woman who will do what she must to protect her part of a city that both enchants and infuriates her.” —Margaret Maron, author of the Judge Deborah Knott series

Genres: Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Italy, Crime, Fiction, Italian Literature

217 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2011

About the author

Jan Merete Weiss grew up in Puerto Rico. She studied poetry and painting at the Massachusetts College of Art and received a Master’s degree from NYU. Her poems have appeared in various literary magazines. She lives in New York and lectures at Lehman College.

Reviews

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

THESE DARK THINGS

Italian Carabinieri investigate the murder of a beautiful college student found in the underground crypt of the Church of Santa Maria delle Anime Del Purgatorio in Naples.

What makes this book special is the feeling of complete immersion into the city of Naples. The blending of Italian religious traditions and organized crime with current day urban and social concerns is well done.

The characters are nicely developed, with no lack of female strength and gusto. Dark, but fun to read.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loads of Neapolitan color in this new detective series. Enjoyed.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Yes. [Teresa Steiner] said he had told her I didn't mind his having an affair. She apologized. How could I hate her? She told me about her mother's cancer, and about Gambini. She was too open. She said she didn't like taking from the shrines, but she hated the Church as much as the mob. If the people thought their prayers were being heard, then it was immaterial where the money went. All that mattered was their belief." Signora Ruttola gestured at a lone photograph in a gray frame. "She reminded me of my daughter. These young women live life as if it were an outfit, something to try on but not wear."


~~Naples, Italy with Mount Vesuvius looming in the background

Meet Captain Natalia Monte of Naples Italy. Born and bred amongst the city streets, she is well aware of both the beauty and danger that her beloved city contains. After trying her hand at the University (and failing to produce a defensible thesis, largely due to rebuffing the sexual advances of her adviser), she joins the Carabinieri instead. The Carabinieri are a branch of Italian Armed Forces, but also have domestic policing duties. As such, a late night distress call falls into Natalie's jurisdiction.

An elderly bone cleaner, Gina Falcone, is part of a rapidly shrinking group of practitioners who are believed to intercede for souls waylaid in purgatory. Gina peddles a cart full of cleaned bones down to the crypt below the Church when she happens upon a startling scene. A woman is arranged in an ancient pose in the middle of the crypt, but the red blossom on her chest is not flowers--and from it protrudes the hilt of a knife.

Natalie and her partner, Sergeant Pino Loriano, arrive at the Church to interview a shaken Gina, the monsignor--Father Cirillo, and various bystanders. Their investigation takes them in an ever-widening circle through the trash-strewn streets of Naples. The murdered young woman, Teresa Steiner, has been a very busy girl indeed. Lines begin to intersect. Teresa had the same University adviser who made Natalie's life so very difficult some odd years ago. Was he also spurned by Teresa, and did he take the rebuff personally? Can Natalie even investigate this angle objectively? And then there is the growing evidence that connects Teresa to the Camorrra--Naples deadly and violent equivalent of the Mafia. Exactly how far into the organization was she? Was she simply working for them while she conducted research for her thesis, or was she playing a more deadly game? Can Natalie investigate *this* angle and keep her life?

My two cents: Jan Merete Weiss dumped me right into the streets of Naples. I loved her descriptions of time and place. She skillfully weaved prose and dialogue into an enjoyable read. I do have a few gripes. The story arc was difficult to follow at times. It's one of those mysteries where you get to the last few chapters, and the wrap-up feels more like "Ok, I guess that's the culprit" rather than a satisfying end to a trail of clues (with a few red herrings along the way). The plethora of characters didn't help much, although some of that confusion is most likely due to the foreign setting and complicated (but beautiful) Italian names. Finally, a bit more about the ending without spoiling it. The conclusion didn't feel right at all to me. Natalie was developed to the point where I felt that I understood her personality, especially her stance on ethics. The ending just didn't jibe with the character build in my head. That's ok to a degree--people do strange and unexpected things--it just wasn't a satisfying conclusion to *me*. But with all that being said, it is a short read, and I loved the in-depth look at Naples. Given 3 stars or a rating of "Good". Recommended to those who like short mysteries, and especially recommended to those who like reading books that tempt them to study places further.

Favorite Quote(s): "Sheets of laundry lines billowed like synchronized swimmers."
"Across the way, Mrs. Bruna's balcony was thick with potted plants she had carried out from her apartment in anticipation of rain. Her arthritis was more reliable than the weather reports."

Further reading: A link to the fascinating ancient practice of bone cleaners http://savvytraveler.publicradio.org/...
~~A link to the trash crisis in Naples, which is depicted These Dark Things ttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/euro...
~~A link to the Camorra, who are largely responsible for the garbage crisis--among other things. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camorra
~~A link to the Carabinieri. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carabin...
~~And finally, a link to Mount Vesuvius. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_V...

[Evie · Rating 4 out of 5]

These Dark Things is an interesting and captivating mystery novel set in Naples, Italy. It's a pleasant and satisfying read, that leaves you craving for more.

Gina Falcone is one of the last "bone cleaners". Her job is to prepare the bones for the second burial, an ancient practice going back to Egyptians. When she goes to the local church to collect the bones for cleaning, she discovers a corpse of a beautiful young girl. The victim, a young student from Germany, has been brutally stabbed in the heart, yet not even a single drop of blood has been found near her body. Captain Natalia Monte, member of the RAS elite within the national police (Carabinieri), is called in to investigate the murder. She and her partner, Sergeant Pino Loriano, will do everything it takes to find the murderer.

It's nothing like I've ever read before. I was prepared to be served a simple murder mystery, instead I got an excellent mix of culture, history, crime, political issues, personal drama and even a tiny bit of romance. J.M. Weiss skillfully incorporated many interesting historical and cultural facts into solid and well-thought-out plot. The characters were brilliantly depicted and vivid, the detailed descriptions made even the minor ones stood out.
I found it really interesting to read about Italian traditions and customs, political issues and conflicts with local criminal organization (Camorra). I must say, I'm deeply impressed by the amount of research the author must have done for this book.

The mystery itself was a solid one. Just when I was starting to feel a little bit disappointed at how easily Natalia solved the murder, a few unexpected incidents and twists came up along the way and I finished the book with the soothing feeling of satisfaction. I can't say I got attached to the characters, nor was I especially fond of them. Despite the colorful and detailed descriptions, the characters lacked emotions and were a little bit... flat. But looking at the whole construction of the plot, I can understand why it seemed like it, after all there was so much going on on the 224 pages of the book. In the end I was pleasantly surprised at how the author concluded the story. What at first seemed like a simple and easy to solve mystery, suddenly gained a whole new perspective and so much more depth, I thought it was absolutely brilliant!

I would really like to get to know the characters better and see them solve more mysteries, so I'm definitely looking forward to the next installment in the series.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery novel with an interesting cultural and historical background. You won't be disappointed!

[TC · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a good murder mystery, especially with a foreign location thrown in for extra interest, so when I read the synopsis for this book it was pretty appealing.

Captain Natalia Monte is assigned to investigate the murder of a pretty student found in the catacombs beneath a monastery in Naples. There are more than a couple of suspects for Monte and her partner to investigate, some of them who have a history with Natalia. The story is set in a Naples drowning in rubbish and with the main crime families at war, and one of Monte's oldest friends caught up in the violence.

While I haven't visited Naples I have had a couple of stints working elsewhere in Italy and there is a lot of wonderful evocative narrative that painted a familiar picture for me, of both the place and the people. This was probably what I liked most about the book. I found a lot of the information about the Catholic church and the influence of the Camorra criminal organisation very interesting, also a positive. However other aspects of the book weren't so strong.

I found that there was plenty of description of passing characters, which provided a lot of local colour but didn't relate to the plot, yet I came away from the book with very little feeling for Monte or her partner. I didn't feel like I understood her background or got any real sense of her feelings about what was happening. She wasn't unsympathetic, perhaps worse I came away feeling apathetic. The developing relationship between the partners was nice but I can't see myself picking up future books in the series to find out what happens between them in the future.

With regard to the murder mystery, it started strongly and there were plenty of candidates for the role of murderer, each with their own motive. However towards the end everything seemed to resolve itself too easily, with confessions falling into Monte's lap. Without wanting to reveal too much, when the murderer was revealed their motive was made clear but I couldn't entirely understand why they had staged the scene as they had and no attempt was made to explain it.

I also felt that the other strand to the book, the rivalry between the criminal organisations and its effect on Monte's friend, was very minor for most of the book only to becoming more dominant towards the end. The decaying rubbish was mentioned throughout but it seemed more of a background setting than a storyline earlier on and it felt a little unbalanced.

This wasn't a bad book but it isn't one I can find myself getting hugely enthusiastic about. I have read too many books of this type that I've really enjoyed to be able to see myself recommending this one.

[Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really can't figure out why so many people like this book. I'm normally a big fan of mystery novels set in foreign countries -- especially in places I've visited. This book felt completely disjointed to me, though; sometimes a section break meant that five minutes had passed, and other times it felt more like a few days or even weeks. Plot developments kept being introduced in characters' conversations, in a way that suggested that they were old news to the people who were talking about them -- I kept having to flip back a few pages to make sure that I hadn't accidentally skimmed pages and missed things, but I never had. Oh, and the prose just didn't feel right, to the point where I had to check at one point to see if the book was originally written in another language and then translated to English (it wasn't).

This was (sadly) a very underwhelming book. I won't be reading more in the series.

[Shuriu · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Is the Camorra in the States?" the tow-headed agent from Washington asked.
"They first surfaced in Brooklyn, New York, in the early 1900s, led by the Neapolitan extortionist Alessandro Vollero. By 1916, Vollero was capo di tutti capi, boss of the eastern seaboard. Eventually, the Camorra and the Black Hand -- the Mafia -- went to war for control. Vollero ended up in Sing Sing and the Camorra lost their upper hand. Here in Naples, the Camorra dominates, as the 'Ndrangheta does in Calabria at the toe of Italy, and tho Sacra Corona Unita runs Puglia." (p. 60)
Though built on the bones of the poor, the Camorra was extremely class-conscious. The top mobsters dressed well, mixed with polite society, and banked their millions in Switzerland, in Liechtenstein, and on Gibraltar. They bought politicians and preyed on shopkeepers, selling them counterfeit goods to retail. They smuggled tax-free contraband cigarettes, fixed soccer playoffs, and dealt arms, and drugs.
Camorra life revolved around the oligarchs like Gambini. He was no less a feudal lord. A dictator with total power. No Italian government had challenged the Camorra or the other mafia brotherhoods since Mussolini. (p. 128-129)

Natalia drove fast with the window down. Three kilometers out of town, the countryside grew lovely. Mist burned off the fields, filled with orange poppies. Horses lifted their heads to watch them passing. Pino recognized the trees. Walnut. There must have been fifty walnut trees. They proceeded a few more miles at a fast pace, until Natalia suddenly soled the car and pulled off the road. Luckily, there was no traffic. Without speaking, they got out of the car and walked under a row of sheltering oaks encased in vines, flanking a large field of uniformly placed walnut trees that had started to blossom. Dried shells were scattered on the ground. . . .
Every Neapolitan knew that traditionally the nuts had to be picked on San Giovanni Battista's Day, when they were still green. Their dark brown liquor was extracted and made into an after-dinner drink, a heavily spiced, almost bitter digestive. Natalia had never cared for the drink, but she loved nothing better than a fresh walnut and pick up a whole nut and handed it to Pino. (p. 127-128)

Magical thinking in Naples increased after the cholera epidemic in 1884. Disease came from the Far East, through Provence, and back to Naples with infected migrant workers. Conditions were ripe for an epidemic. Polluted drinking water. No regulation. Fields crisscrossed with waterways where animal feces were dumped. Produced rinsed in the same water and brought to market. Tens of thousands died in a matter of weeks. The Church suggested the illness was retribution for sin. (p. 148)

. . . . "Naples is undermined with quarries the ancient Greeks excavated for the volcanic building-rock the city sits on. And the empty Roman cisterns, dug before Christ, to serve as underground reservoirs. Huge things. Some were fitted out with bathrooms and beds during World War II. Bomb shelters. And there are mortuary crypts beneath the temples and churches, of course. Also caves used as catacombs. Subway tunnels are down there, too. . . . Only a third of all the labyrinths have been explored and recorded. There are huge caverns, some tunnels so narrow you have to crawl through and hope you can even turn around in if you have to back up. It would be worth your while to go look. Just don't get lost down there. The excavations under the city go on for hundreds of miles -- two thirds of them, like I said, uncharted. There are an awful lot of urban legends of people going down there and not coming back out." (p. 177-178)
"It's amazing what these ancient structures have withstood," Natalia said. "Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes."
"Yes," Heller pointed at the white mortar holding together the large stones that made up one foundation wall. "They used mostly lime, sometimes mixed with a little linseed oil. It turned out to be perfect because it remained flexible even when subjected to seismic shocks." (p. 179)

[Charles Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I generally love books published by Soho Press as they have unique settings and I love mysteries set in uncommon locales. The descriptions of Sicily were vivid (although uniformly negative and leading me to want to stick the central and northern Italy for any vacation plans). There was very little character development and while I could picture the heaps of trash suffocating cities in the shadow of Vesuvius, I couldn’t picture the characters at all. In fact, until the second half of the book, I had assigned the wrong genders to multiple people because of how little was said about them. The sex sprinkled throughout seemed quite forced and out of place (and the age of one of the people involved raises a lot of questions about the author’s judgment). In a similar vein, one chapter began with a laundry list of foreign immigrants with zero development of them or actual insertion into the plot, almost as if as an after thought the author felt necessary to add diversity to Sicily’s population. Finally, the dialogue was terse and choppy, with no color, the opposite of Italian dialogue… the mystery was average so I’m giving this many stars mainly for the vividness of a unique setting. I won’t bother with the sequel.

[Karen Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid mystery set in Naples, dealing with the death of a German college student whose body is found amongst the thousands of bones in the catacombs under the city. The lead investigator is Captain Natalie Monte, who has risen to get current rank despite the prejudices of her fellow officers. Monte and her partner, Pino, soon discover that the murdered girl was way more than a simple college student working on a thesis, and suspects abound in her demise.

One of the drawbacks of the book is that there are a lot of characters to keep straight, from Natalia's past, to the investigation of the murder, and one almost needs a flow chart to keep them all straight. That doesn't distract too much from the book, which is very engrossing and throws in a garbage strike that is stinking up the city as a subplot. One of the book's strength is description as it does a great job of portraying the city and countryside around Naples. There is one section I had trouble with, not a major plot point but still a spoiler, that I did not feel was necessary involving a romantic liaison for Natalia. I am, however, looking forward to the sequel. Recommended.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gina Falcone, an elderly woman, is a bone cleaner. She collects the bones of those who have been dead long enough that the flesh is gone. She cleans them and takes them to the churches around Naples where, in the cloisters and catacombs under the city, they become part of the macabre dance that is religion and superstition in parts of Italy. It is in one of these places that Gina finds the body of Teresa Steiner, a student from Germany. Teresa has been posed in a tableau familiar to those who have a memory of such things from time immemorial.

Captain Natalia Monte and her sergeant, Pino Loriano, are called to the scene because they are Carabinieri and it is this branch of Italy’s many police groups who are charged with the protection of cultural centers of which there are more than can be imagined in Italy. Very soon into the investigation Natalia learns that there is another reason this has fallen into the lap of the Carabinieri in Naples – they are responsible for criminal activities associated with the Camorra, Naples home-grown answer to La Cosa Nostra in Sicily.

With the introduction of the Camorra into a story that ties into the Catholic Church and the cultural beliefs of the Neapolitans, the story goes off in a few directions. It is a story that centers on women, the murder victim, Teresa, Natalia, and Natalia’s two best friends, Lola, whose husband is involved with the Camorra, and Mariel, a bookstore owner. Natalia and her friends have grown up in poverty in one of the worst slums of Naples but all have risen above the circumstances of their births, Natalia and Mariel through intelligence and determination, and Lola through marriage to a killer. The women are close, meeting whenever possible, but always in secret because a relationship between Natalia and Lola would mean the end of Natalia’s career. Lola’s relationship with a captain in the Carabinieri would not be helpful in the circle to which her husband belongs.

The Naples of THESE DARK THINGS is dark. There is little description of the cultural heritage or the natural beauty of the area. Instead, the author wraps the story in the man-made disaster that has defined Naples since the mid-1990′s. The Camorra had control of the waste management system of the area, an incredibly lucrative benefice in that other countries in Europe, as well as other areas of Italy, could sell their dangerous waste products to the Camorra for illegal disposal rather than follow the guidelines established to protect the people, the land, and the water from toxic waste. When the government of Naples announced its plan to build incinerators to handle the waste, the Camorra stopped collecting the bags from the city streets. It was left to rot, causing illness and depressing the economy of Naples when restaurants and food stores had to do business among the noisome fumes of garbage.

Weiss’ use of a very real problem created by very dangerous people is courageous. One of the most stunning books I have read in the past few years is GOMORRAH by Roberto Saviano. The title refers to the Biblical Gomorrah because, as Naples is today, it was a city steeped in sin and without the will to atone for its crimes.

I wrote this for an Amazon discussion group after I read the book in 2008: “GOMORRAH doesn’t fall into categories that work for fiction. Saviano worked undercover in the areas around Naples that are bases for most of the illegal activity in Italy. The purpose of the families is to wield power through fear and to do that they must have money. The groups are involved in making copies of Italian designer clothing. One story is about a man who makes a suit based on measurements he is given; he sees the suit in a celebrity magazine. It is worn by Angelina Jolie. He wants some recognition and extra money because of his success; instead he is required to drive a truck endless hours over roads that are barely tracks. Locking his hands around the steering wheel ruin the dexterity he had and end any hope he had that he would be able to continue making clothes.The book exudes brutality. The reader cannot keep up with the number of deaths cataloged in this report. There are hundreds of names mentioned as well as regions of Italy that the tourists aren’t likely to find.

The Camorra and the Mafia are despicable groups who destroy everyone around them while at the same time convincing these people that their safety lies in the protection they offer. When I was teaching in an enclave that had connections to organized crime, it was a joke to hear that there were no drugs in the neighborhood because the Mafia wouldn’t handle them. That was a joke played on people who thought these people believed lives were more important than money and power.”

Unlike the Sicilian Mafia, women and children are not protected within the Camorra. For those of us who have seen any, or all, of the Godfather movies, the message is given that the work is the work of the men. Women don’t know from where the money comes that allow them a lifestyle to which they were not born. If they suspect, they don’t let on. In GOMORRAH, Saviano describes a drive-by shooting in which a girl, sitting in front of her home, eating an ice cream, is collateral damage. The Mafia is as brutal an organization as can be found at any point in history, but it did/does manage to police itself according to its own standards. The Camorra is a different entity.

As this is the beginning of a series, I hope, it is likely that most of Captain Natalia Monte’s time in subsequent books is going to involve dealing with the Camorra. Weiss does not provide an ending that isn’t realistic to the setting. This ended a bit too quickly and the killer of Teresa isn’t a surprise but the books is irresistible. Once started, it begs to be finished.

[comfort · Rating 3 out of 5]

Naples in the summer and the garbage collectors are on strike, the feel and stink of the rotting garbage is another player in this book.
A young pretty student is found murdered in the catacombs under the city, it is Captain Natalie's job to figure out if it was a spurned older lover, a mute monk, who pines for her or Organised crime.
It was an OK read, I haven't read any books by this author before and it was interesting listen to a "foreign" language book. A different take on conventional American or English police work.

[Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't take my rating as the only ruler for reading this book. I had allot of things going on an found my brain on one thing while I was reading. Was that because of the book or all the things going on I do not know. I was interested in the story but was dissatisfied with the ending. Didn't quite fit the characters in my opinion and wrapped up a bit quickly leaving some holes. Maybe because this is the first in a series the holes will fill in later

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept was promising but the flow and style was a bit choppy for me, making it difficult to get to know the characters well, and before long I decided I just didn't want to. Made it 50 pages in before calling it a day.

[Carolyn Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the writing often felt choppy and I longed for more characterization, The things done really well in this book were the descriptions of reeking garbage, violence, mob control, and a sense of futility. It made me cross Naples off my list of places to visit.

[RustyShack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good editor would have eliminated this book’s many small but jarring technical problems.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 3 of 6 cds. Too much info dumping about Naples and the personal lives of the detectives. Not enough plotline. I couldn't keep my interest in it.

[Sandra Aardema · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spannend boek. De moeite waard om te lezen.

[Bryndís Gunnarsdóttir · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, entertaining read. I liked the main character, the plot, the twists and the Italian setting.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️

[Genevieve Paquette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second time listening to this one. I remember not being terribly enthused about it, but actually, it's quite good. The characters are well developed and interesting, and you can't help but feel invested in Natalia and her friends.The way that Naples is written, though, is the real draw, here. You can practically smell it.
The solution to the crime was kind of out of nowhere, but... it still made sense.
I also appreciated how the victim evolved throughout the book, going from sympathetic to, well, not, in a believable way.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is the custom in Naples, Italy of the second burial. Officially, this practice has ceased decades ago, but it is an ancient ritual going back to the Egyptians. Mourners wait for a year for the body of a loved one to decompose, and then dig up the bones and place them in a bone box for the second burial. Neapolitans still have deep-seated superstitions about the dead. Perhaps it was not surprising that people here actually dressed in black so as not to be mistaken by the dead as living souls ripe for haunting.

These days, the few remaining bone cleaners, like Gina, collect the bones from the grave keepers and put them to rest in certain Neapolitan churches where the rite is quietly tolerated. One of these was the Church of Santa Maria delle Anime del Purgatorio. One day, Gina encounters the relatively fresh body of young and beautiful Teresa Steiner, murdered and displayed.

Since the victim is found in a cultural shrine, the case falls to Captain Natalia Monte of the Carabinieri. She is a member of an elite group within the national police. This is a position she has worked long and hard for, becoming one of the rare women to reach this rank and stature. As Natalia begins to investigate with her partner, Sgt. Pino, several lines of investigation open up. Teresa was a student at the local university and also worked for a local crime organization that had the concession for collecting donations from the hundreds of local shrines.

At this time, Naples is a city in turmoil for many reasons. The main one is that the streets are lined with piles of rotting garbage that hinder the passage of pedestrians as well as road traffic, and that are emitting a stomach-turning stench that affects everyone's daily life. To make matters worse, the public health department is reporting an increasing number of cholera cases.

The Camorra, the Naples local criminal organization that runs the garbage service, refuses to collect it or allow anyone else to collect it, because they are at odds with the Mayor, who is pushing a new state-of-the-art incinerator. Those few brave citizens who had the gumption to move the garbage from in front their place of business were soon experiencing their first burial.

Older than the Mafia, the Camorra origins go back to Spain's brutal rule of Naples. It is a much more vicious and ruthless organization than the newer crime syndicates. It has no rules and it penetrates every aspect of life in Napoli. The Sicilian Mafia had once granted family members and innocent civilians immunity. In the case of the Camorra, if an offender were "in the wind," relatives, wives, and even children are not exempt from wrath and vengeance.

The Carabinieri are a national force that came into being out of distrust, to make certain that no ministry would have all the military and police power.To keep the police above the fray, members of the Carabineiri even have to get their spouses approved by their superiors after exhaustive background checks. Being friendly with anyone in the Camorra is grounds for dismissal. This was aside from the very real possibility that if there was a serious investigation into any criminal activities, the police and Carabinieri themselves were at risk, as were their families. The Camorra is actually like a second government, with its own internal rivalries, and it is here that the internal troubles spill out into the street.

Captain Natalia Monte walks a razor's edge in her job and in her life. Natalia, naturally, has had friends throughout her childhood who may now be associated in one way or another with the Camorra. Weiss really brings both Natalia and Pino to life. Pino's character is fleshed out well and is quite interesting. A Buddhist who rides a bicycle to work, Pino is a good balance to Natalia, who is a freer spirit, but who nonetheless is dogged and incorruptible. The next step either of them takes in this, or any other investigation, could be fatal.

Weiss portrays a Naples that should by all accounts be a beautiful place to live, if one is considering the weather, the architecture, the flowers and the food. But in La Bella Napoli, survival depends on walking a tightwire. I enjoyed the book tremendously, and hope to meet up with this intrepid duo again.

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhere in the opening third of this Naples-set crime series debut, I started to find myself having a hard time not seeing images from the 2008 film Gomorrah. That powerful feature is a vividly bleak picture of contemporary Naples and the stranglehold organized crime has on it, and it's hard to imagine anyone seeing it and not looking at Naples through its grim lens thereafter. While the forces of law were largely absent from the film's storytelling, this slim debut shows us the city through the eyes of a pair of carabinieri assigned to the elite anti-organized crime unit. (The carabinieri occupy a somewhat uneasy middle space in Italian law enforcement: although officially an arm of the military, they serve as a kind of national federal police with a more sweeping powers and scope than local police.)

The story opens with the striking tableau of a beautiful redhead found sitting dead in a tiny church crypt by an old crone working as a traditional bone cleaner -- the initial injection of the steady doses of cultural history that run throughout the book. Carabinieri partners Captain Monte and Seargent Pino are assigned to investigate and soon find connections in the murder to one of the big crime families, several local clergymen, and the smarmy professor who drove Monte from her university studies a decade preciously. Unlike police in most of the West, who are able to investigate without too much concern about the consequences, they are forced to tread lightly when their cases starts to veer into the world of organized crime. As the book makes abundantly clear, it's the crime families who run Naples, and the forces of law and order only serve at their pleasure.

The story takes the reader all across the historic city, from the dangerous Spanish quarter to the upscale nouveau-riche district of Chiaia and into the largely unmapped miles of tunnels, crypts, and caverns hewn into the rock below it. There's even an excursion to the notorious Scampia suburbs north of the city, whose gang-ruled public housing blocks feature prominently in Gomorrah. Meanwhile -- in an obvious metaphor for the mafia influence on civil society -- the story unfolds against the backdrop of streets covered in festering trash, due to gang turf battles over trash-pickup services (which really happened a few years ago).

It all ticks along at a nice brisk pace, and unlike far too many books, it doesn't too much extraneous fat on it (the one exception being a predictable and unnecessary romantic entanglement). And while I quite appreciated that for most of the book, it didn't quite work for the ending. It's one part of the book where the author needed to slow down a touch and let the climax unfold a little more slowly, and instead it has a bit of a rushed, abrupt feel to it. It's a solid debut, not great, but good enough to keep me interested in reading the next in the series, and definitely likely to be of more interest to someone with an interest in Italy.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

These Dark Things is a story that transports us to Naples, Italy where the Camorra (a crime syndicate older than the mafia) rules with an iron fist and the Carabinieri (police force in charge of protecting cultural institutions) are called to oppose at every turn despite overwhelming odds against them. Captain Natalia Monte is called to the scene of a murder; a body has been found in the crypt of a local church. She arrives to find the body of a young woman posed, sitting in a chair surrounded by the bones of plague victims. From identification found she is Theresa Steiner, 23 years old, a student studying from Ulm, Germany.

Theresa Steiner, a very social person, has come in contact with many people – even the infamous Camorra leader Gambini himself has been seen with her. As the story unfolds there is no lack of suspects including: a blind monk, Gambini head of one of the biggest syndicates of the Camorra, and a philandering Professor who doesn’t mind ruining students careers to get what he wants.
As the investigation heats up, so does the trash that’s being abandoned all over the city – two factions of the Camorra fighting for control of the lucrative trash removal contracts. Not to mention that Captain Natalia has had prior dealings with this philandering Professor and one of her best friends is involved with the Camorra in-fighting and doesn’t know which side to take, or who will win. If that wasn’t stressful enough, Natalia has a new love interest that may get her into more trouble than it’s worth.

Confession:

I enjoyed the book, but it’s not going to be one of those books I remember for very long. I loved the premise of the book and the setting. If I could go anywhere in the world I would probably pick Italy. I really loved the history and the language, and I was glad to see that was showcased in the book. However, sometimes it seemed like a little TOO much. I would be reading a sentence and suddenly there would be an Italian word placed there. I wouldn’t have minded that so much if it didn’t happen so frequently. I didn’t need so many constant reminders of where the setting was. The only other thing that was a minor turn off was having the same things described all the time – people loitering in the streets, garbage everywhere, children running, etc. For me, it was just about moderation, in my opinion it was just, again, too much.
The story is enjoyable and the mystery is interesting. I haven’t decided whether or not I will be reading the next in the series or not. Although this book left off in a very interesting place.

[Tiff · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a good murder mystery. It's possible I started with a high expectation of this book because the synopsis sounded so good, but I find myself disappointed in this one.

Starting with the good things - I enjoyed Natalia and how her character evolved throughout the book. She was devoted to her career, her friends, and most importantly, to solving her cases. Her budding romance with Pino seemed a little odd at first, but after a while, I realized that Pino has held a torch for her for many years, and it only seemed natural that it should at some point, come to fruition.

Pino was an interesting man, and I enjoyed his character as well. He was definitely a "live only in the moment" sort of man, and while I think he and Natalia have a fairly decent thing started, the fact that she is his superior and he is her subordinate is a dangerous game. He says he won't give her up so soon, but they are skirting ethical boundaries. So in the end, I was left feeling perhaps it is all a game, or a simple fling.

I liked the case. Teresa Steiner's murder was complex, and the person who ended up having committed the crime is totally not who they were focused on for the entire book, which was a bit of a shock. Very interesting development.

What bothered me about this book, and why I am rating it only 2 stars, is because I felt there was way too much description of surroundings, too many details of past situations, and too much involvement from seemingless minor characters. There just wasn't very much dialogue in this book, more looking back and reflecting on situations and thoughts. Things did not seem centered on the actual case, the murder, instead it seemed the book was centered more on the people, their upbringing, things they had experienced 20 years ago, the history of the city, the mob, etc. I wish this book had been edited better, more dialogue between the characters thrown in, and more emphasis on the actual crime, the investigation, and the ultimate arrest of the perp.

I skimmed certain parts of the book, and I hate when I have to do that, but they were sections when the material was just dry, boring and really immaterial to the overall story. All in all, I would probably rate this book as just ok, thinking it was missing some really vital elements that you typically find in a good murder mystery. Thanks to Soho Press and netGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book for free!

[J.M. Cornwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intimate and unforgettable tour through the dark heart of Naples.

Gina Francone, a bone cleaner and relative of a Camorra crime boss, finds a body lain out in a church crypt. Teresa Steiner, a student working on her doctorate, seemed to be a sweet, poor girl and it is Captain Natalia Monte’s job to find out who killed her.

Born and bred in Naples, Natalia knows all roads lead to the Camorra and all the roads are filled with garbage, the visible result of a struggle for control between warring criminal factions. Add a bit of ancient history with Teresa’s college advisor, a nearly blind monk and personal ties to the Camorra, and Natalia finds herself in the middle of a seething Vesuvius of intrigue and danger.

On the face, These Dark Things is a police procedural with a murder at the center. Jan Merete Weiss proves to have much more up her sleeve.

Natalia’s past clouds her professional judgment and obscures the obvious facts in Teresa’s murder, providing a much wider scope to the mystery and the novel. By feeding in the details of Neapolitan politics, history and structure, Weiss makes These Dark Things very dark and very intricate, a literary sleight-of-hand that amazed and entertained that was also appalling. It wasn’t until the very end that I realized who the murder must be. Brava!

To take These Dark Things at face value is a mistake; the novel is so much more. Weiss immerses the reader in subtle details and inches along in what could have been a long short story or novella by adding real world details that add strength and substance to characters plucked from the piazzas and trattorias. The wealth of information about the crime syndicates and the current state of affairs is fascinating as well as frightening and does not detract from what seems to be the main focus of the novel—the murder of Teresa Steiner.

It was obvious that Weiss intended—and delivered—so much more. These characters will continue to live their lives when the murder is solved and the last page read. Each of the characters’ lives is inextricably intertwined and the bargains they make to be able to continue to do their jobs fascinating.

Weiss’s passionate tale walks a razor’s edge between fact and fantasy that makes These Dark Things memorable and the ending stunned me.

[Cathy Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Line: A large cypress tree arched over the graves, and a few clouds the color of peaches.

Captain Natalia Monte of the Italian Carabinieri may get to wear uniforms designed by Armani, but she's faced the same tough climb up the law enforcement ladder that all women have had to face. Monte works in the city in which she grew up-- Naples-- and Mt. Vesuvius with its varying colors of smoke plumes looms in the distance watching over all.

A beautiful young German college student has been murdered, her body carefully placed in the crypt beneath an ancient church. Monte has been assigned to investigate, but not only are there many suspects, she also finds her way hampered by the garbage strike that has deadlocked her beloved city with towering piles of stinking, rotting refuse.

The setting of this book is absolutely superb. I have seldom read a fiction book and come away having learned so much about a city. Weiss wove a Neapolitan spell around me using threads of beauty as well as ugliness when Monte's investigation takes her to the violent underbelly of the metropolitan area.

What didn't work so well for me were the plot and the characters. There were many plot threads, but the ending felt rushed and too neat for a place such as Naples. Monte's partner, Pino, was a more developed character than Monte, but they all felt "at a remove". The relationship between Monte and Pino took off too quickly, and I felt that it would have worked better if it had taken place over the span of a few books rather than all in the first. Just enough of Monte's backstory is given to make her interesting, and I'm hoping that more information will be forthcoming in future books. From the ending (which doesn't show her in the most flattering of lights), it appears that Monte will be a multi-faceted character who will grow and change.

Since I was absolutely riveted by the setting and culture of These Dark Things, I look forward to reading the next book in the series. I have high hopes that plotting and characterization will improve and match the city of Naples as a setting.

[Lynn Harnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

From its first macabre scene of the old bone cleaner pushing her cart along in a Neapolitan dawn on her way to discover a murder in a church crypt, to its last line, as Captain Natalia Monte smells a wilting bouquet: “She inhaled their perfume – rotten, yet sweet, the scent of her beloved city,” Weiss’ evocation of Naples engages all our senses.

But even the vitality of the neighborhoods, the fruit markets and the cafés won’t necessarily make you want to visit. Naples teems with life and color and beauty, but it’s riven by brutal corruption, harried by superstition and immersed in an overpowering stench of garbage that sums up most of its problems.

The crime syndicates control garbage hauling and trash is piling up on every corner during a strike that shows no signs of abating. Though it’s not entirely clear what’s what, the syndicates are refusing to pick up the garbage and the city landfills are overflowing and closed.

The choking miasma dogs young (early 30s) Caribinieri Captain Monte’s heels as she and her partner Sergeant Pino Loriano investigate the brutal stabbing death of Teresa Steiner, a brilliant young German graduate student. Monte longs to pin the crime on Steiner’s oily, lecherous thesis advisor; the same man who ruined Monte’s university career when she spurned his advances.

But there are other suspects, from the Gambini mob boss who was using Steiner to collect money from the neighborhood shrines to a possibly lovesick blind monk. And, of course, the professor’s long-suffering wife.

A child of the city, Monte brings her history to this first novel in what readers will hope is a long series. She has friends and family connections in all walks of life and while she doesn’t share the deep superstitions of her mother’s generation, the old ways are in her bones.

This character-driven novel is well paced, with a gritty, noir atmosphere, lightened by the sheer vitality of its heroine and her city. Weiss, who grew up in Puerto Rico, immerses her readers in a city that thrives on contrasts and intensity. A wonderful debut.

[Dawn Jobes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Naples, Italy, a young woman is murdered and her body posed in a church. The Mafia, the Italian Carabinieri police, and a few Monk, Jesuits, and a novice. This is what has been tossed together in this book.

We meet Captian Natalia Monte and her partner Pino Loriano who must investigate the murder of a young University student visiting from Germany. Along the way we learn about the garbage crisis effecting Italy and the Mafia wars that are prevalent there as well.

I must say that Ms/Mr.Weiss did a lot of investigation into what she needed for this book to work. We have church history, cultural history, and some political history going on here that would not work if it hadn't been put together so well. I do find that some of the story doesn't flow quite right and the transition between scenes does not go smoothly. Since this is the first book I've read of this author's and I don't know if she/he has written any more, I don't know if this is her/her normal writing style. It wasn't enough to turn me away from further reading.

I enjoyed the by-play of the characters very much and in seeing a little of their lives outside of work. I learned things about the church that weren't known to me before this and I felt there should have been a little more explanation into some aspects of the book. But again, not enough to deter me.

Normally you have writers who try and make the scenery in their books seem beautiful, but this one chose to show us, the reader, the nastier side of Naples and how it is for the citizens during the garbage crisis. (Which I was unaware of I might add) Its always nice to read a refreshing story where we see a little more of a human character then someone who just pushes themselves to solve a crime.

I would definitely recommend this book to friends to read and would read more of this character's upcoming books.

[Larraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admit to being in love with all things Italian. So when I read about this book, I knew I had to read it. I'm a fan of Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti series which takes place in Venice. I've also read one or two Aurelio Zen mysteries although I didn't care for the writing style as much. (On the other hand PBS televised Vendetta last summer. It was excellent.)



Inspector Brunetti is always on the side of justice, but knows that the intricacies of Italian justice and society often make that impossible to achieve. Aurelio Zen holds a similar view, but the irony is unmistakable.



In this series we meet Captain Natalia Monte of the Carabinieri, a national police force. The setting is Naples, a city known for its corruption. Natalia also has a passion for justice. Yet at the same time, one of her closest friends is Lola, who is married to a foot soldier in the Gambini organized crime family.

Organized crime has become uglier and more ruthless than in the past in modern Naples. They think nothing of blowing up someone's entire family to get their point across. Shopkeepers pay monthly tribute. They have control over garbage collection in Naples. Because the politicians are trying to put in a new incinerator and the landfills are full, there is a standoff and no garbage is being picked up.

The city looks and smells like a sewer. Yet there are still beautiful places, and the author's description let you see the beauty behind the ugliness.

When a beautiful young woman is found brutally murdered in what looks like a ritual killing, the Carabinieri are called in because the setting is an historic landmark.

This book really draws you into Naples. I felt like I was actually walking the streets. I could picture the upscale, the slums, the winding streets, the street urchins, the old ladies, the hookers and more. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.