Death Is Beautiful

January Magazine critic M. Wayne Cunningham today weighs the expectations for editor Giancarlo De Cataldo’s anthology, Crimini, against the results of this Italian crime-fiction collection, and determines that an estimable balance has been struck.

Writes Cunningham:

According to De Cataldo, himself an author, screenwriter and appeals court judge in Rome, three themes predominate in this collection. The first, as one might expect of any worthwhile noir anthology, is the theme of corruption, especially financial and moral. The second involves the growing wave of immigrants “that is perceived either as a threat or else as an unmissable opportunity for an old, tired, jaded country like Italy to renew itself.” And the third is the theme of success at any cost. Oh, and of course, members of the Mafia have roles to play here as well, whether at home or offshore.

You can read all of Cunningham’s review here.