I read back-to-back mystery novels set in Italy, so I'm writing about them together -- though that broad descriptor is about all they have in common. The Marshal and the Madwoman is set in Florence and features a Carabiniere from Sicily, while Blood Rain is set in Sicily and features a policeman from Venice. I was reading and enjoying the former when I found the latter in a thrift store, so I picked it up. My affection for Sicily was a factor in selecting it as well. I probably wouldn't have bought if it were set elsewhere in Italy -- which now that I write it, strikes me as a little odd, but certainly is true.
One idea that really struck me in The Marshal and the Madwoman was that each neighborhood in Florence is like a village. Everyone knows everything that goes on in their community, but another community just a few blocks away might as well be a distant town. Reading the book was like getting an intimate look at one of these tiny urban villages. When interviewed by the Carabiniere, the local bar owner says that his family has lived in this square of Florence for a notably long number of years (I forget exactly, but I think it was in the neighborhood of 180). Despite the close quarters, life in the city replicates life in the country. You get this village idea over again when at one point, the titular Marshal calls the local police and recognizes his interlocutor as a fellow Siracusan by his accent. When he realizes he's forgotten to get this officer's name, the Marshal asks his (also Siracusan) wife who knows exactly who the officer is and whom he is related to.
Blood Rain, by contrast, is about vast, overlapping conspiracies: the mafia, the government, the various police forces. It wasn't a particularly affectionate treatment of Sicily. The protagonist doesn't like Sicily, but I got the feeling that the author doesn't either. Valleta, Malta, where the protagonist spends some 24 hours mostly in a hotel room, is given about as much love as is Catania, where most of the book is set. (Unrelated: should I visit Malta?) Anyway, this book was an engaging. breezy read, but not much more.
