The Mannequin Man

The taxidermist of the title of Di Fulvio's grim but often subtly amusing first crime novel, published in Italy in 2000 and shortlisted for the European Crime Writing Prize, relishes watching creatures die. His victims also include humans. The first policeman to realize what's going on when a series of mutilated bodies start to show up in and around a city that sounds a lot like Genoa is Chief Insp. Giacomo Amaldi, in his own depressed way as strange a character as the killer. As a garbage strike turns the city into an evil-smelling symbol of modern life, Di Fulvio deftly walks both sides of the noir line by letting us in on the joke—adding more and more problems to Amaldi's load, but always transcending dreary genre parody with a beautifully written phrase or paragraph. (Jan.)