Copyright 2021 by Nick Goulding. Published by Libel Press.
Full disclosure: the author is my nephew.
Nick Goulding is one of the finest young men that I have ever known – a charming husband, dedicated father and a talented and successful chef and entrepreneur. Now I have to add “skilled author.” The man is going to be impossible. His head may explode if I pay him any more compliments.
And yet I must. With Licosa he has spun a unique tale of political intrigue, fortune hunting and murder, all set in the sunny seaside town of Saraceni, Italy. He writes so vividly about the town and the nearby lighthouse on Isola Licosa (hence the name) that I had to find them on the map. And got confused because while Italy has at least two towns named Saraceni, neither is on the coast. Perhaps it isn’t a real town – an author is permitted to make stuff up in a novel – but the other settings are vividly real so why not the main one? Puzzling.
A quick synopsis. The protagonist is an American journalist named Martin Bass who takes a sabbatical from writing to go off in search of sunken treasure near Saraceni. He succeeds, but in the course of becoming rich – and a local celebrity – stumbles across an event that embroils him in local Italian politics, circa 1962. Politics in Italy is a contact sport and people start turning up dead. He runs afoul of the law – apparently due to something he saw while diving – and is offered a chance to gracefully exit the scene. Take the money and run? Nope. The journalist in Bass takes over. He has to get the story.
Without giving the plot away I will tell you that he gets the story and it is both larger and smaller than you can possibly imagine.
This book is filled with interesting characters, violence, suspense and car chases. Someone could write a good screenplay based on this. Kudos to Goulding for a first novel of great depth, charm, style and character.
And yet…
Those few of you who have read my previous book reviews might recall my review of The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille. Licosa reminds me of The Cuban Affair. I hope my nephew will be flattered by a comparison to a wildly popular author. But the point of similarity is that both stories, though very well-written and packed with interesting characters and plot twists, ultimately end by disappointing me as a reader. In both books I am denied a satisfactory conclusion. My reaction to both: that was a lot of action for no good purpose.
So Licosa is a very good read, but read it for the characters, the settings and the politics. The finish, while shocking, was, to me, disappointing.
7 out of 10.