One of the great things about the modern world is that with the internet and a multitude of television stations is that you can learn about things that previously there would be little chance of one coming across.

And so it was that a few months previously I was watching some opaque tv channel about Italian crime fiction and its great novels, of which “The Day of the Owl was one”.

Italian crime is grittier and the line more blurred between good and bad than its American or British equivalents. “The Day of the Owl” is quintessential Italian crime fiction. It was originally published in Italian in 1961 and as best as I could tell, it was set in the nineteen fifties. The location is Sicily, the traditional heartland of the Mafia. It gives an insight into the poverty and rural nature of the area. The people struggle to eke out a leaving as peasants and smuggle cigarettes. The landed gentry send their eldest son to the monastery to become educated and then skip out to become a lawyer. There is no banking system other than borrowing at extortionate interest and every penny must be paid on time. However, the very existence of the mafia is disputed just like it would have wanted.

The story begins with a man getting shot running for a bus one morning in a small, Sicilian town. Even though the bus was packed, nobody in the bus including the driver saw the murderer. The case is given to a Carabineiri captain, Bellodi from Parma. He is not from Sicily and believes in the power of the State and the rule of law. In Sicily, family connections and informal relationships come first.

Bellodi ensures a proper investigation is carried out, against push-back from the establishment. The man who was the owner of the small company refused to pay protection money, and despite being small scale, was set an example of.

For a time it looks as though, he might make a major breakthrough and even arrests the local don after some crafty, on the line methods.. But murky forces ensure that it all goes away and any mention of organized crime dissipates.

In true Italian style, there is no happy ending only what might have been.

Probably, just as interesting as the novel, is what happened afterwards. It was part of the slow awakening of Italian society to the threat posed by the Mafia.