That the territory has become a real character in Italian crime fiction, and that crime fiction has had the merit of “inventing” a landscape, is increasingly a confirmation. And “The Devil’s Specchia” (Rizzoli), by Gabriella Genisi, author of the successful paper and television series Inspector Lolita Lobosco, proves it. The Devil’s Specchia, in griko «Segla u demoniu», in the heart of Grecìa Salentina, an enormous stony pile around which legends hover, is the place chosen by the writer from Bari to set her mystery which, starting from the mystery of Rami, a young Indian found injured under the pile of stones, sets in motion an investigation conducted by the Carabinieri Marshal Francesca, “Chicca”, Lopez, born from the writer’s pen in 2019 with «It stings bitter» and she immediately made a name for herself due to her personality, certainly different from the strong femininity of Lolita Lobosco, with whom she, however, has in common the determination to fight bullying, the will to get to the bottom of investigations and the ability to command respect.
And it is through Lopez, still riding her beloved Triumph Bonneville motorbike that we travel through Salento, exalted by the verses, at the beginning of each chapter of the novel, of the poet Giannino Aprile, patron of the arts for the diffusion of knowledge in the Grecìa Salentina: from Santa Maria di Leuca to San Foca, from Punta Palascìa to Torre Chianca and San Cataldo and Felline and naturally to Lecce in all its baroque splendor, in an exalted geography from the story of Genisi, or enriched with suggestions starting from a detail, a dream or memories. And memories of a life that have come upon her Chicca has many, despite her young age. But everything needs its time and for a broken love on the one hand, on the other there is the recovery of the relationship with the biological father who was away from her for a long time and who now moves her with his sweet presence. An important fact for Chicca’s emotional growth, for her maturation and for the evolution of the character who will certainly have a lot to say. Meanwhile, Chicca holds firm to her desire to carry out an investigation that is expanding into the murder of a young goldsmith. And it is Chicca who advances the investigation, despite the initial distrust of Captain Biondi, who often thinks that “Lopez is a complete macàra”. But she proceeds without delay.