In Venedig weint man nicht

Urbino McIntyre Mystery #2

by Edward Sklepowich

Each year, Carnevale transforms Venice into a wonderland of color and spectacle. From the Piazza San Marco to the Grand Canal, costumed celebrants cavort with wild abandon. Anything can happen... even murder.
When the brutalized corpse of an English photographer is discovered in a dirty alley used for illicit rendezvous, expatriate American author Urbino Macintyre is asked to discreetly investigate. And now death is following Urbino down a twisted trail of blackmail, jealousy and deceit that weaves its way through the festive madness--as he races to unmask a killer before the revelry ends at the stroke of midnight.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

284 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

EDWARD SKLEPOWICH has been an expatriate American for many years. He has been a Fullbright scholar of American literature in Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia. He divides his time between Tunisia, where he is a university lecturer, Venice, New York, and a former Phoenician town on the Tunisian Mediterranean called Sousse. His deep feeling for Venice is one expression of his maternal Italian heritage.
Interview with Edward Sklepowich

Series:
* Urbino McIntyre Mystery

Reviews

[Antoinette · Rating 4 out of 5]

#2 in the Urbino Macintyre mystery series finds the expatriate writer in his beloved Venice during Carnivale. Venice is crowded with residents and tourists in costumes and masks, filling the city with a frenzy of merrymaking.
An English photographer is found stabbed to death in an alleyway. Urbino puts aside a project on Proust to conduct his own investigation into the man's death, along with his friend Barbara, the Contessa da Capo-Zendrini. Soon they are caught up in a mix of confusion and deception. Wonderful descriptions of Venice, its food, culture and fascination inhabitants. Complex and literate plot. Recommended to any mystery fan.

[Tracey S Choat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Venice mystery

Clever, intelligent and descriptive. I paused at the beginning of this book (the second in the series) to watch an old video set in Venice so I could fully appreciate Mr. Sklepowich's descriptions of the city. This is a book to be savored not a fast paced thriller.

[Karschtl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ich war schon zwei Mal in Venedig und mag die Stadt sehr. Leider lernt man sie im Buch nicht wirklich kennen. Es werden zwar laufend Straßennamen oder Kirchen erwähnt, aber nichts darüber erzählt, nichts vom Flair rübergebracht. Außer dass die Straßen an Karneval voll von Touristen sind. Am Ende des Buches ist eine Karte von Venedig (die ich auch leider erst relativ spät gefunden habe, wieso macht ein Lektorat sowas ans Ende des Buches??), die beim Lesen allerdings auch nicht viel hilft, da fast alle genannten Orte nicht drauf verzeichnet sind. Mir hätte ein Übersichtsplan der verschiedenen Schauplätze sehr viel besser gefallen und dann hätte so ein Plan im Buch auch Sinn gehabt.

Die Geschichte war verworren und verzwickt, mit vielen Zufällen: alle Leute (Nicht-Venezianer) die irgendwie miteinander zu tun haben sind zufällig alle gerade in Venedig. Aber am wenigsten hat mir gefallen, dass man den Hauptkommissar überhaupt nicht 'fassen' konnte, sich kein richtiges Bild von seiner Person machen konnte (da außer seinem Alter und dass er irgendwann mal verheiratet war nix über ihn, seinen Charakter, seine Vorlieben, seine Gedanken etc. geschrieben wurde) und er deshalb für mich vollkommen gesichtslos blieb. Auch unklar blieb für mich die Motivation, wieso Urbino diesen Auftrag überhaupt angenommen hat, die Nonnen mussten ja nicht gerade große Überredungskünste aufbieten.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sklepowich comes through with another mystery set in Venice...where Urbino Macintyre is deep in the middle of a murder during Carnevale. The plot is one of jealousy and lies...hidden behind the masks worn during the Carnevale celebration in Venice. The murder of an English photographer in a questionable area of the city has Urbino questioning not only local Venetians but also visitors to the city.

I like Sklepowich’s novels for the simple reason that his mysteries are solid and tight without moving into the realm of sensationalism. Add to that my interest in Venice and you can be sure I’ll keep reading the next book in the series. Sklepowich provides his readers with detailed images of the city of Venice, so much so that I often find myself stopping to Google a particular church or other landmark that is mentioned.

[Writerlibrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set during Venice's carnival, we follow Urbino Macintyre in his second adventure in sleuthing. Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu" is kinda of the key of the mystery. Like the first novel, literature plays a big part in the plot and how the characters act and think. A young man is killed in an infamous back street of Venice during carnival and his murder starts a domino effect in the lives of the people caught in the middle. It's well written, the carnival is made part of the plot not just scenery. I should have paid more attention to Proust but then again sometimes it's fun to be surprised. I'm looking forward to the next novel.