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    Three-Card Monte
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    Three-Card Monte
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    Three-Card Monte
    Ebook176 pages2 hours

    Three-Card Monte

    By Marco Malvaldi

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    This new novel by Marco Malvaldi marks the return of the investigative quartet nicknamed the "senile squad." At the Bar Lume, with the exception of the bartender Massimo and his assistant, the beautiful and kindly Tiziana, the youngest regular customer is Aldo, seventy-something owner of the Osteria Boccaccio. Then come his longtime friends, each one older than the former. Their principle, indeed their only activity is sitting around at the Bar Lume ostensibly playing cards but in reality analyzing, postulating, gossiping, and chronicling every event that occurs in their small Tuscan town, their talk laced with colorful tuscan slang and figures of speech. Massimo, all intuition but tending toward inaction, is obliged to investigate a homicide on behalf of his all-too-curious clientele and by Commissario Fusco of the local police. The old-timers provide a running commentary and play devil's advocate to any and all theories concerning the perpetrators of the crime. Their cunning at three-card monte has taught them how to see past appearances to the truth that lies behind.  An Italian Comedy, a beguiling Italian mystery, and a vivacious portrayal of small-town Italy all wrapped into one.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEuropa Editions
    Release dateAug 26, 2014
    ISBN9781609452162
    Unavailable
    Three-Card Monte
    Author

    Marco Malvaldi

    Marco Malvaldi was born and lives in Pisa, where he obtained a PhD in Chemistry from the “Normale” University. His previous books include the Bar Lume series. He is the winner of both the Isola d’Elba Award and the Castiglioncello Prize for his crime novels.

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    Reviews for Three-Card Monte

    3.5/5

    30 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Fresh, original, clever
    • 4/5
      The Twelfth International Workshop on Macromolecular and Biomacromolecular Chemistry takes place in Massimo's home town of Pineta in Northern Italy, attracting a number of Japanese delegates, including one very elderly and much revered professor. Massimo and Aldo, one of the pensioners, are to provide catering during its coffee and lunch breaks. There is great excitement and disbelief when the elderly Japanese professor is found dead, and then the police find they are investigating a murder. They need Massimo's help with translation as they interview the delegates one by one.From Wikipedia: The Three-card Monte game itself is very simple. To play, a dealer places three cards face down on a table, usually on a cardboard box which provides the ability to set up and disappear quickly.The dealer shows that one of the cards is the target card, e.g., the queen of hearts, and then rearranges the cards quickly to confuse the player about which card is which. The player is then given an opportunity to select one of the three cards. If the player correctly identifies the queen of hearts, the player gets the amount he bet (his "stake") back, plus the same amount again; otherwise, he loses his stake. As the character who explains it to Massimo says, the trick is to get the player to focus on the wrong actions.I didn't really enjoy the novel as much as I expected to although there are some humorous bits and quirky characters. I thought the attempts to make links between the title (and the card game) and the action of the murder mystery were a bit tedious, and although the novel was short, I got to the point where I wanted it to be over. The final explanation for the murder (the motive) was a bit thin.