‘Cocaine’ - A review

This translated edition from MacLehose Press was released back in 2016 (they also put out ‘Judges’ and ‘Outsiders’ themed short story collections) brings together the wonderful talents of top Italian writers Massimo Carlotto, Gianrico Carofiglio, and Giancarlo De Cataldo.

Opening with my favourite of the three, Carlotto’s ‘The Campagna trail’, we follow narc Inspector Campagna who, suspected of being dirty, has to run a one-man operation to bring down a Bulgarian mafia leader, who is responsible not only for a significant flow of cocaine into the Padua region but also the death of a colleague.

Filled with Carlotto’s trademark cynicism, violence, betrayal and humour, for new readers this story serves as a great introduction to the writer while for those already familiar, it provides more high-quality entertainment. I particularly enjoyed the ending.

Following on from this is ‘The speed of the angel’, from Bari prosecutor Carofiglio. Representing a dramatic change of pace from the previous story, for a while, a Lawrence Block reference excepted, I was wondering whether it belonged in a crime fiction collection. As we follow a writer who strikes up a friendship with a mysterious woman in a bar, and bit by bit she reveals her story to him.

However, that paragraph perhaps does a disservice to the engaging slow burn of the story, which tackles identity, obsession and how that can lead to a downward spiral.

By the time I reached the last story, ‘The white powder dance’ from De Cataldo, and its opening set in the drug harvesting fields of Peru, I realised each story was dealing with a different stage of the cocaine process. Although, the collection seemed to not follow its chronological order.

Perhaps though, that was because De Cataldo’s story was too encompassing of this process (and arguably too broad to fit into a short story comfortably). Showing us the lives of a young boy harvesting the drugs, a cartel leader, an ‘Ndragheta banker, an aging capo, an Italian and a US cop and more, this story charts the rise and fall of individuals all connected to drug production, importation and sales.

The story itself was solid, but needed more room to breathe (perhaps like Saviano’s ‘ZeroZeroZero’) and possessed a nice ironic ending considering the content.

Overall, this was a wonderful and diverse collection that proved a quick and easy read.