In which I blow my own Trumpet

Again

I was rather pleased to read the following review on Amazon of my book ‘The Chemist of Catania.’ I reproduce it here in full:

‘[I] Had limited expectations for a book published under the Amazon imprint and solely purchased because of a recommendation on Twitter that I thought was probably biased in favour of the author.

How wrong can first impressions and expectations be?

This is an amazing tale. Punchy. Gripping. Entirely believable, both in setting and characterisation. Lucie-Smith takes you into a world of which we, in the secular and complacent North know very little, and makes you feel it as if you were there. His characters are fully formed humans, with all their strengths and weaknesses, their virtues and faults, their courage and cowardice. I believed them all. Understood them all. Loathed some as if they were real and a threat to all I had and hoped for. Very few novels can do that.

You know why the characters are as they are. You can see why they chose the ways they did. He doesn't stint on the viciousness or the grubbiness of that world, but he also shows the bravery of those who fight against it consuming them. At times you feel like a voyeur.

I believe this is the first in a series set in its Catanian underworld milieu; I can't wait for the next.

Mario Puzo eat your heart out, Lucie-Smith knocks your book into a cocked hat.’

I don’t know which bit of this I like the best. The ‘purpose’ of the book, if books can have a purpose, was to show how people become Mafiosi, how they arrive at the point they have come to, and this reviewer seems to recognise that, which is gratifying. And it is always nice to have praise for good characterisation, which is the one thing that can elude a writer. As for being told I beat Mario Puzo, well, what can I say?

This kind critic says he can’t wait for the sequel. Well, he or she does not have to, it is here! So far it has been read by a few friends in typescript and by the proof-readers, all of whom have been enthusiastic, and who have said that the Nymph surpasses the Chemist. I hope they are right!