Crime Series
Interview with Marcella Nardi
by Maria Teresa De Donato
Some time ago Marcella and I talked about one of the literary genres in
which she ventured, namely the Legal Thriller.
In this interview, on the contrary, we will be focusing on her Crime Series.
MTDD: Hi Marcella, and welcome again to my Blog and
Virtual Cultural Salon.
MN: Hi
Maria Teresa, and thank you for inviting me again.
MTDD:
Let's dive right into your publications, starting with the protagonists
Marcella Randi and Lynda Brown, "two female detectives, one password:
Justice".
Introduce us, please, to these two characters, their
concept of Justice, and their consequent relationship with it.
MN:
Marcella Randi and Lynda Brown have a lot in common, but also many differences.
I am not referring only to the fact that one is Italian and the other is an American
from Seattle, who later moved to Rome. I am referring to their life background
and character. Marcella Randi has the same physical features that I have, and,
in some respects, she also resembles me temperamentally. She is a lively,
passionate, and sharp woman. She has never disdained romantic relationships,
despite having suffered a lot in her life. Although nearly sixty, sentimentally
speaking Commissioner Randi loves to be transgressive, holidays, and social
life. Lynda Brown, on the other hand, after a toxic relationship, while still
living in Seattle, closed herself up in a hedgehog, with regards to romantic
relationships, always putting work at the top of her priorities. Once arrived
in Italy, Lynda gets married, but she is not lucky. After a few years of
happiness, she becomes a widow. Her work overwhelms her more and more, letting
her to neglect the daughter her late husband adopted years before they met.
What unites them (Marcella Randy and Lynda Brown) is their desire for justice,
even if, sometimes, this means circumventing the rules of the investigation.
MTDD:
Marcella Randi is the protagonist of one of the series you wrote and to which Via
San Vitale 1, Appearance Deceives, and Vendetta belong.
How are these three novels similar and how do they
differ?
MN:
Actually, two short novels also belong to the series: A prova di Serial
Killer (To Serial Killer Proof) and Amori & Vecchi Rancori (Loves and Old Grudges).
The three novels you mentioned are different from one another. The only common
thread is Marcella Randi with her desire to reveal the crime, her stubbornness,
her smile, and jokes. In Via San Vitale, 1 (St. Vitale Street, 1),
our detective is still a university student who sees intrigues everywhere and
who often helps her father, Commissioner of the Homicide Squad in Bologna.
Thanks to her curiosity and insight, the young Randi uncovers an international
espionage crime, whose actors are in her building and the one across the
street. In "Appearance deceives", we find an adult Marcella Randi, on
the threshold of fifty years and who is a commissioner at the homicide squad of
San Fedele in Milan. It is a novel with strong tones in which her passionate
side also emerges. One of the two dead, brutally murdered, was an old flame of
her. This novel gave birth to a Spin-Off Oltre i Limiti della Passione (Beyond
the Limits of Passion), which is an erotic novel in which she recalls one sad
and passionate love story of twenty years before. As for the third, Vendetta,
I am going to reply to your question through my next answer.
MTDD: Vendetta
is a detective story with a historical background.
Why did you make this choice?
MN: For
two reasons: I love medieval history and I love thrillers. It has often
happened to me, in my career as a reader, to come across novels whose events
have their roots in ancient times. An American friend of mine, who lives close
to where I live, still keeps the boarding pass of her ancestors who arrived in
the USA with the Mayflower (four hundred years ago). This gave me the cue to
invent a plot for a thriller that had ties to a family that lived seven hundred
years earlier in Cagli, under the then Montefeltro dukedom.
MTDD: For
Vendetta you will have had to do some specific historical research.
What arrangements did you make?
MN: The
same I make for all my novels, even the modern ones. Since due to my education
I am neither a policeman nor a biologist nor a historian, every time I write
about something I am not familiar with, I do some research. For historians, I
generally create a sort of ‘chronological and geographical map’ of past places
and events that I want to write about. For this novel, to create a link with
the present, I searched the ‘meanders of the Internet’ to find an ancient
monastery that had ‘modern and very sharp’ abbesses. I found that of Cagli, no
longer active, which 700 years ago was under the Dukes of Montefeltro. In those
years three abbesses of noble origin and very modern for those times stood out.
This helped me to create a link with the events of the present, which take
place in an existing monastery and under the current jurisdiction of the Milanese
Flying Squad: the Viboldone monastery.
MTDD: What particularly fascinated you about this
detective story and especially about its preparation?
MN: The
historical aspect, as well as the fact that three abbesses, at the time, gave
the dukes and the bishop a lot of trouble. While changing the name, I have
studied what is known about their life. I chose the one that intrigued me the
most.
MTDD: You
describe Lynda Brown, the character of your second series, as a detective who
"feels a strong need to investigate what happened, in an attempt to make
sense of the darker mysteries of her life."
How much of fiction is there and how much of reality
belongs to you in this character of yours?
MN:
Marcella Randi looks a lot like me, Lynda Brown is very different. I wanted to
create a character different from me, albeit with interesting characteristics. There
are only a few aspects that unite us. Meanwhile, I would say that I tried to
make it as less ‘fictional’ as possible, giving it a character typical of many
detectives. Similarly, we have Rome and Seattle. Contrary to what she does, I
live in Seattle and lived in Rome in the past. We both dislike contradictory
reasoning. For this reason, some of my friends, over time, have detested the
fact that I quickly discover lies. I immediately notice the contradictions. It
may be because of this that I love reading and writing detective stories. We
both have no children and are almost the same age. We have nothing else in
common.
MTDD: Lynda
Brown is the protagonist of Sarai solo mia (You Will Be Mine Alone) and Io
non dimentico (I Do Not Forget).
Tell us about these two cops and their possible
commonalities or differences.
MN: The
two novels have very little in common, other than Detective Lynda and her
assistant, Isabella. It is certain that in both novels we notice the same
investigative approach, but the locations of the crimes are different: the
first takes place in Rome in a luxurious residential area; the second in the
province between Rome and Viterbo. What inspired me? I would say that reading
the crime story, the two stories told in the two novels are part of the sad
reality that you read in the newspapers. The second novel was inspired by some
facts related by a friend of mine who works for the juvenile court department
in Seattle. She told me sad stories that over the years have resulted in
terrible violence. For the first novel, however, I read a short article about
some murders that took place in a luxury neighborhood on the outskirts of
Genoa. But I wanted to place my character in Rome.
MTDD: Is Marcella Nardi more Marcella Randi or more Lynda
Brown?
MN: As
I have already mentioned, both in terms of physical appearance and many aspects
of character, I certainly look more like Marcella Randi. It is no coincidence
that I gave her a surname that is an anagram of mine.
MTDD: Would you like to mention some particularities of
the other novels of both of these two detective series?
MN:
First of all the names of the characters. I amuse myself by choosing names that
belong, in full or as an anagram, to people I know. Another singular fact
concerns Vendetta. I was stunned when, wanting to also have a beta
reader (before I only had one editor who would control everything once I had
finished my writing), the person who came forward, whom I didn't know at all
and who over the years has become one of my closest friends, is called just
like the abbess of the monastery of Viboldone. I refer, of course, to the name
I invented in the novel. It was a truly extraordinary coincidence. Maybe it was
written in the stars.
MTDD: A
question that many ask themselves is: Does the 'perfect crime' really exist?
How would you reply, but above all how would Marcella
Randi and Lynda Brown answer this question?
MN: In
certain situations, I would say that all three, Marcella Randi, Lynda Brown, and
myself would reply that the perfect crime does exist, but…only in very rare
cases. I explain it on behalf of all three. By perfect crime, we mean a crime,
typically a murder, for which no traces and evidence could lead the
investigators to find the culprit. Such a crime has some specific aspects: the
killer must be a perfect stranger to the victim; he/she doesn't have to live
near (his/her victim); he/she must not have any connection points, for example,
he/she must never have frequented the same place; and, dulcis in fundo (last
but not least), he/she must not commit any serial killings. This explains why
some serial killers are often eventually identified, but only after many years.
A serial killer rarely has any connection with the victims. When they are
arrested, often after many years, it is because they make mistakes or similar
actions that allow detectives to find connections and then arrest them. But… a
serial killer is a criminal psychopath who, therefore, acts for no real reason,
other than to enjoy seeing the fear in the victim’s eyes. For the rest of the
crimes, as my distinguished detectives would tell you, the perfect crime does not
exist. The bulk of the crimes, however, have a motivation connected with the
victim.
MTTD:
Thanks Marcella for having been my guest again.
How about reminding our readers how they can get in touch
with you and/or buy your publications?
MN:
Thanks to you, Maria Teresa, for having invited me again. Talking about my
novels is always a pleasure. People can contact me through my website: www.marcellanardi.com, or through LINKTREE they will have all my Internet
contacts (Facebook, YouTube, etc.): https://linktr.ee/Marcellanardi
