LA PISCINA

With surprising twists and masterful wit, Giacomo Papi transforms the classic murder mystery novel à la Agatha Christie into a sharp sometimes grotesque satirical work, a dark comedy about class struggle.

It's an entertaining satisfying read, an homage to the whodunits we all love, with a strong element of contemporary social satire. Papi brilliantly uses genre structure and elements a wealthy family, a mansion on the Italian hills, a cast of eccentric and various characters with their own agenda and secrets, a series of twists and turns in which no one is above suspicion to tell a story of class struggle and say something about wealth and social inequality. The world famous artist Klaus Signorini is about to celebrate his 80th birthday in the Umbrian castle where he has retired. Celebrating with him around the large Qaddafi pool the Maestro disassembled and reassembled tile by tile in his castle there will be his two nephews Lucrezio and Laudomia and great-nephews Lea and Luis Miguel, a gallery owner, his greedy lawyer, a parasite pusher and a crew of servants and assistants. The old artist knows that everyone will be looking out for his inheritance rather than his birthday, but a week of great laughter, swimming, eating, wisecracks and hunting is still expected. Something, however, goes wrong: Klaus is found dead right at the beginning of the weekend, when they all arrive. Inés, the Peruvian cook, finds his frozen dead body in one of the large freezers in the basement. The lawyer is out of his mind because he knows that Klaus had just cashed out 5 million from the bank and accuses the staff of killing him to pocket the money. But the housekeepers don't buy it, and Florin, the handyman with a criminal past, fights back. The rebellion takes hold, and in an instant the masters find themselves serving cocktails, in livery and cresting, to servants lying in the sun by the pool.