THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE*

I entitled this post, The Postman Always Rings Twice*, but he actually managed to squeeze these beauties through our letterbox at the end of last week, without ringing the bell.

I suspect these Italian crime books will prove that you don't have to be a 500 page blockbuster to contain oodles of plot, character, and atmosphere.

* The 1934 novel by James M Cain that has been filmed several times, but the definitive version was the 1946 movie with Lana Turner and John Garfield.

John Garfield died tragically young at 39, when a heart condition was exacerbated by 'blacklisting' during Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist witch-hunts of the 1940s and early 1950s.

The eight times married Lana Turner, also suffered personal trauma when her daughter Cheryl Crane stabbed her lover Johnny Stompanato to death in 1958. A corner's inquest found that it was justifiable homicide.

Sometimes actor's real lives are more intriguing than the fictional characters they play in movies.

This can apply to authors as well, because Massimo Carlotto was accused of murder and was on the run from the police for several years, before being pardoned.

Read my review of The Fugitive by Massimo Carlotto.