The detective stories from Modena and Beyond
by Roberto Roganti
Interview by Maria
Teresa De Donato
Dear Readers,
Today, our friend and colleague, Author and Blogger Roberto Roganti, came back to visit us. Those who follow our respective activities will probably have already had the opportunity to read our previous interviews Roberto Roganti and The Classic Month and Roberto Roganti between Tales and Modenese Dialect Poetry.
As we have considered
in the past, there are many cultural activities in which Roberto has been
involved for many years. Today, we want to focus on his production of
'Thrillers,' many of which are set in Modena, his city.
I therefore wish you
all a happy read!
MTDD: Hello, Roberto,
and welcome again to my blog and virtual cultural salon. It is always a
pleasure to have you as my guest.
RR: Thank you very much,
but what can I say, ten thousand… the pleasure is mine too.
MTTD: In one of the
previous interviews, we presented your literary production by referring to your
poems, especially the dialect ones, and your stories.
How did you end up
writing detective stories from poetry and short stories?
RR: Look, it was easier
than I thought. As I said in the other interview, when I was young, I read the
mystery genre; in my house, there were hundreds of them, starting from number 1
of the Mondadori detective stories... I read a lot of them, almost all of Agatha
Christie, all of Simenon, a lot of Chandler, Doyle, Stout, Queen... in short,
the classics and the lesser-known... There was a period in which I made a point
of reading all those with an Italian surname... Ezio D'Errico, Guglielmo
Giannini, Franco Enna, Sergio Donati, but the one who fascinated me the most
was Giuseppe Ciabattini… then, I kept reading, and a… crime mentality formed in
my head. Then come on, first the poetry with very little love and a lot of
death, then the stories, more or less all tragic and very often with deaths...
two plus two always equals four... in the end, after reading Faletti, Recami,
Camilleri, Carofiglio... I've landed in Malvaldi... I think that, as they say,
a prisoner on... Malvaldi. The matter of the BarLume and the old men struck me
as if it struck me... I picked up Mors tua, vita mea again, and... I created
the group of 5x1_6, a commissioner and five friends who solve crimes.
MTDD: In Modena Today, which
interviewed you in 2018, you declared that the characters in your first
detective story, Death at the Garden Village, are Modenese, real people, and
you stated that "The dead speak more than the living."
Please tell us exactly
how you published this mystery, how you chose the characters, and, above all,
elaborate on this sentence about the dead, which is particularly significant.
RR: Look, it developed
throughout a sleepless night from overeating. As I said in the previous answer,
everything starts from a story. That very night, I was struck by the idea of
creating a group of friends to help the commissioner on duty solve cases. It was
a challenging task to choose the characters; I tried to combine figures who
knew each other with figures who didn't even know the existence of the others.
So I created the team, the 5x1_6, where the 1 was the commissioner and the 5
other friends who gave him a hand. Each has its own characteristics and a job
as similar as possible to real life. A freelance journalist, a winemaker, a gym
teacher, a sportswear representative, and a web radio speaker. My character and
the commissioner do something completely different: I am not an undertaker; the
commissioner is a retired teacher and well-known crime writer. I organized a
dinner, and after the first hesitations, the group consolidated. I set death at
the Garden Village in Modena's area where I live, and it was his luck. Beyond
the story, which veers from yellow to sarcastic to historical, the story was
praised for its originality. Imagine that I made four editions of it. At the
Garden Village, it sold like hotcakes, but even those who lived in my city appreciated
the journeys of one of the protagonists through streets and porticoes... it
seemed they found themselves in Modena.
MTDD: In 2019, your second
detective story was released – Death at the Lido delle Nazioni – of which I
found very positive reviews and newspaper articles.
Would you like to talk
to us about it?
RR: This made a splash. Written in the first person, it had a
strange history like the other one. I had a plot in my head, but it didn't
convince me, so in the summer of 2018, I found myself on holiday at the Lido
delle Nazioni. Perhaps annoying myself a bit by being on the beach, I started
observing life around me, and slowly, a strange story, a particular murder,
rose from the bottom of my gut. I studied the environment carefully, memorized
actions and behaviors, and studied the local characteristics in-depth, and the
book was born. In the summer of 2019, I returned to the crime scene and
attended two presentations, one in June and one in August. In the first, I
placed about twenty copies; in the second, almost sixty... I couldn't believe
my eyes. The story is raw, violent, and with a nearly gruesome death. Still,
the setting between the hotel where I usually stay and the bathroom where I
usually go has created a curiosity among holidaymakers to have a text that
speaks, even in a police investigation, of places dear to them. So the six
friends go on a trip, and between eating fish, drinking some whitebait, and
taking a dip in the sea... they solve the case and save the incipient seaside
season. In this issue, a new character becomes part of the texts: a friend of
mine, a man from Rovigo, who places him as commander of the Carabinieri of
Comacchio. His figure will also crop up in subsequent adventures.
MTDD: Your third detective
story – Death at PalaMolza – also met with considerable success, and, as in
your other detective stories, the investigations are conducted by the
"Cinquepermenosei."
Can you tell us
something about the plot and explain who these characters are?
RR: This text was the one
I had in mind and which had been put aside. You should know that for almost
thirty years I have also been the physiotherapist of local handball teams, from
Serie A down... so the setting of this adventure inside the sports hall was
easy for me, knowing it in all its meanders. The story is intricate; the scene
occurs throughout the region among handball players, coaches, and referees. But
in the end, as always, fiveforonesix achieve their goal. The success was good,
but not immediately, because this book, which was born in January 2020,
suffered considerable trauma. I had organized the first one in a neighboring
town, home to a renowned handball team, for Saturday, 22 February 2020, to then
propose it again at the end of the championship at the mega end-of-season
dinner for HandBall Modena, a popular place as I expected conspicuous sales.
That night, due to Covid, Italy and my ambitions were blocked! In the end, over
time, I had my satisfaction, and I made up for the expenses incurred, but even
though it was a good mystery, it was a bit unlucky.
MTDD: Death on the Fly was the novel you published in 2021.
You called it a "fantastic mystery".
Can you tell us
something about the plot and characters without revealing too much?
RR: This was a bolt from
the blue. I had come across people who wrote recalling Sherlock Holmes, and
this idea came to me... Grogghino takes the time machine and returns just
enough to solve a locked room case. While in the victim's presence, he
discovers he is being observed: Sherlock Holmes is sitting in an armchair. So,
in the end, Sherlock becomes Grogghino's sidekick, and together they solve the
case. Despite the excellent idea and plot, it is a long story; the Sherlockian
world has turned against me as their idol cannot be anyone's sidekick... so I
sold all the copies and did not continue further the idea. Too bad, I had
already put together a couple that I'll have to overturn and bring back down to
earth.
MTDD: Why did you call it "fantastic"? How does it
differ from your other crime novels?
RR: Fantastic because, at the end of the day, it's not exactly
science fiction, but somewhere in between. Obviously, it was not fantastic in
the sense of being beautiful, but it was liked, not by the purists though. The
idea of a time machine going back to discover a murderer is beautiful.
MTDD: Death of 5x1_6
was the other mystery you published in 2021. The title suggests that the group
of characters who had conducted the investigations in the previous detective
stories has become extinct...
What can you tell us about it?
RR: Let's say that the
group of friends had fallen apart in reality, so I decided to remove them from
the scene not brutally but by creating a decorous exit. I, therefore, created
this sort of treasure hunt where the lives of the five-for-one-six are up for
grabs, a race against time and death. This time, the protagonist is the
substitute for one of the characters, a former journalist in real life, who,
replacing his friends' journalist, finds himself involved in this hunt.
Furthermore, I wanted to give a particular connotation to the story, including
all the short stories I had written over the years. So, a fight for friends'
lives in a story like One Thousand and One Nights…
MTDD: In 2022, with your mystery Quiz mortals in Abbey, you have
made a change by also opting for a different type of title.
Have you also changed the structure, characters, setting, or
other elements that are present in your other detective stories?
RR: So... I changed a lot:
text size, increased to 10x15, a real paperback; only one main character,
namely myself, Grogghino, the undertaker; the lifelong friend of
Cinqueperunosei who appears when needed; the possibility that one by one all
the fiveforonesixes reappear; some changes in the police with the inclusion of
new figures that will last over time; not least a speck of "pink" in
Grogghino's life... not just chatting with the dead, who as I have always
asserted sometimes speak more than the living, but a new figure at my side!
MTDD: In February this year, your new detective story,
Rinascere, was released!
Can you tell us about
the plot and characters and explain if and how this detective story differs
from the previous ones?
RR: This has a particular
history: very few characters and a commissioned detective story. You understood
correctly; it was commissioned to me by a sculptor from Modena. I've compiled a
strange story with a surprise ending, which I won't spoil. Fast, light, set
between Modena and the Serravalle Castle in the Bologna area.
MTDD: Looking at the titles of your detective stories, it seems
that there has been a sort of 'inner evolution' or a change in Roberto Roganti
himself.
Is this pure conjecture
on my part, or did something happen along these lines?
RR: That's right. While
the first ones had very particular characteristics, with Death as the first
word of the title and a 12x17 size, the new ones are smaller, and the titles
change depending on the story. Keeping just one main character is, therefore,
more important than keeping up with the genre, surrounded by a court of
investigators who always remain the same through hook and loophole. During the
Covid period, I indulged myself and wrote over twenty new adventures. I will
publish them little by little. I keep the chronology of events in the
characters' lives. The stories can all be read separately from each other, but
the characters evolve over time.
MTDD: Is there a particular message that you want to
communicate to your readers through the writing of your writings, and in
particular your detective stories, or is your only goal to entertain them?
RR: I often ask myself,
why do I write? Whom do I write for? I am writing because I like it. After all,
I have a thousand ideas and want to keep them; I write because I like to share
my stories, which only some people necessarily like. In Italy, many of us write
in this genre, which, in addition to novels, is a genre where imagination is
used. Unfortunately, nowadays, biographies are in fashion... but writing a
memoir is not difficult; each of us knows our own life, but inventing from
scratch a relevant story, whether it has deaths and murders or everyday
stories, is a whole different story. Writers abound, but those who deserve are
few in this plethora of typed pages.
MTDD: Are there any crime writers who have particularly
inspired you, and if so, why and who are they?
RR: The names are the
usual ones and also the lesser-known ones, both male and female. One thing is
sure: what I look for in my books is a way of killing different from all those
proposed so far. Indeed, someone will have described murders like mine, but since
I haven't read them all, I can't know if my imagination was similar to that of
another. To write a mystery, you still need to study. The death must be
plausible, so you don't have to make up stupid things. Poisons, anaesthetics,
inhibitors, paralysers... they must exist and must be treated appropriately. I
rarely let someone die from a gunshot; I mainly use imagination when killing,
but said imagination must necessarily be accurate. And I study a lot in this
area!
MTDD: Do you have any projects that are cooking or that you
have in mind that you want to tell us about without going into details?
RR: In September, I will
publish Modena-Sendai, a dodgeball, a particular detective story dedicated to a
dear friend who left us prematurely, keeping him alive in my detective stories,
starting with a Japanese adventure. At Christmas, I already have a historical/current
mystery ready: 500 Years of Blood, a family feud that began on December 23,
1523, and ended on December 23, 2023. This will have a feature; it will be
released in real-time. Based on the end of life of the Modenese painter
Pellegrino Munari or Aretusi, known as da Modena.
MTDD: How can those who want to purchase your publications do
so?
RR: The only way to find
my works is to contact me. You can find my emails everywhere: on Facebook, my
blog, or Instagram. I'm just telling you that to be reborn! Then, follow The
Gravedigger's Tales. A Tuscan publishing house published the first five issues;
from issue 6 onwards, they will once again be the undersigned's responsibility.
Do you remember Alfred Hitchcock, who, in addition to films or TV series,
produced anthology collections such as "22 Stories of Terror" or
"Stories for the Wee Hours"? There was also Isaac Asimov, who
published "The Great Stories of Science Fiction" in 25 volumes...
well, I propose something simpler, much, much smaller: The Gravedigger's Tales,
which continue with a new look: two or three stories each time, possibly
detective stories, thrillers or detective stories; topic, setting, genre,
location in space and time with the author's favorite character; short or
concise stories, short or medium, maximum 75/80 thousand characters including
spaces.
MTDD: Thank you, Roberto, for participating in our interview.
We'll have the opportunity to do more together.
RR: Thanks to you, Maria
Teresa; it is an immense pleasure to "waste time" answering your
pressing questions. I hope we meet again, and thanks again for the space on
classical music in your blog.
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