Timothy Williams







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Timothy Williams was born in Walthamstow and now lives and teaches in Guadeloupe in the French West Indies. He has previously lived in France, Italy, and in Rumania, where he worked for the British Council. He has written five novels featuring Commissario Piero Trotti, including Black August, which was awarded the Crime Writer's Association Award.

Williams has completed the sixth novel, where the retired Piero Trotti travels south to Rome for a friend's wedding, only to be arrested for the murder of a young American.

Williams has recently embarked on a new series of crime novels set in the French Caribbean, featuring the juge d'instruction (investigative magistrate) Anne Marie Lavaud. In Return from Cayenne, Anne Marie must investigate the murder of a rich planter. The man accused of the murder is an ex-convict who has spent forty years in equatorial America, in the penal colony of French Guyana.

Williams is also at work on The New Elizabethans, a novel set in England in the week following the coronation in 1953.


 
Timothy Williams is a British author who has written five novels featuring Commissario Piero Trotti, a character critics have referred to as a personification of modern Italy. Mr Williams' books include Black August, which was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Award. His novels have been translated into French, Danish, Russian, Bulgarian, Polish, and Japanese. Mr. Williams was born in Walthamstow (Essex, now London) and attended Woodford Green Preparatory School, the Chigwell School and St Andrews University. He has previously lived in Italy and in Rumania, where he worked for the British Council. Williams is among the small number of authors writing Italian crime novels in English (including Magdalen Nabb, Michael Dibdin, and Donna Leon, all four of whom were born within a five-year period). Ms. Nabb's Death of an Englishman was published in 1981 and William's Converging Parallels followed in 1982. Mr. Williams is also the author of a soon to be published series of crime novels set in Guadeloupe in the French Caribbean featuring Anne Marie Lavaud, a juge d'instruction. Mr. Williams, who is French, currently lives and teaches in the main lycée of Pointe à Pitre, Guadeloupe. ==Cultural milieu and writing style== Commissario Trotti investigates crime in a small, unnamed city on the river Po in the north of Italy (sometimes erroneously identified as Padua). Trotti's career spans much of the First Republic, from the period known as the Italian Miracle through the violent Anni di Piombo. This milieu keeps the Polizia di Stato busy and in his enquiries Trotti frequently confronts problems facing Italian society: terrorism, political instability, corruption, socialism under Craxi, Operation Clean Hands (mani pulite), and above all, the decline of civilised intercourse. Writing in a minimalist style, in which he relies largely on dialogue to advance the plot, Williams has at times been considered a demanding author. One critic complained that the books read like translations from Italian. Some readers find that pace and tension are sacrificed for sociology and politics and that the moody, brooding Trotti, addicted to rhubarb sweets, is too slow and too wordy for their taste. ==Characterization== The novels are populated with an array of acquaintances, colleagues, criminals, and the occasional walk-on, which together present a spectrum of the Italian national character. The author often uses the bit players to demonstrate the Italian penchant for labyrinthine and sometimes obfuscatory dialogue. Having grown up under Fascism and having lost a brother in the partisan war of 1943-45, Piero Trotti is cynical yet dourly optimistic. By the fifth novel this optimism is in scant evidence. Trotti's estranged wife lives in America. A number of women find Trotti appealing but Trotti is torn in his loyalty to the marriage. The primary characters, Trotti and the two subalterns he works closest with, use a more restrained, direct language. Trotti himself is not expressive and seems impervious to personal relationships, but both lieutenants form close bonds with their demanding mentor. Magagna eventually leaves for Milan, in part to escape Trotti’s overwhelming influence. Pisanelli, who replaces Magagna as Trotti’s foil, is unable to remove himself from Trotti’s orbit and comes to both admire and resent his superior. In the early novels Trotti's daugher Pioppi suffers from anorexia, a fact which continues to haunt Trotti for years, long after her recovery, and causes him to question his role as a father. In the later novels, Trotti is a grandfather to two little girls who give meaning to his life. Novels Converging Parallels (London: Gollancz, 1982; ISBN 978-0575031258) The Puppeteerr (London: Gollancz, 1985; ISBN 978-0575047532) Persona Non Grata (London: Gollancz, 1987; ISBN 978-0575040823) Black August (London: Orion, 1992; ISBN 978-0575053076) Big Italy (London: Orion, 1996; ISBN 978-0575059290) There are a varied collection of human bits and pieces floating in the River Po in Timothy Williams' book .. but steel yourself for them and read on. CP is by far the best thriller to appear so far this year and I cannot truly see it being bettered. The setting is the industrial north of Italy, the hero is an honest Commissario named Trotti, the villains are the Red Brigades and most of the politicians and the plot centres around the disappearance of a small girl. The atmosphere is electric and the writing is stylish yet tense. Denis Pitts, Punch 29.10.82 Commissario Trotti is an inspired creation. He is determined to work honestly, whatever the consequences for his police career. This is not easy in a small Italian town with forthcoming elections. He investigates the kidnap of a small girl, but is firlmy tol to drop his enquiries when they involve the mayor who is seeking re-election. The Red Brigades are active, their philosophies attract the sons and daughters of the rich and famous. Trotti's wife rushes around casinos with other men, his daughter criticises his dress sense and his work ethics. Through it all, Trotti unwraps boiled sweets and shambles towards the truth. As well as being an accomplished thriller, the story casts a stark light on the political corruption which is rife in Italy. The background is detailed and interesting. Austin MacCurtain, Sunday Times 27.8.1989 In Converging Parallels, Timothy Williams, combines a lament for a decaying society with a kidnapping case in a small, municipally proud, communist controlled Italian city. For his likable hero, Commissario Trotti it is a confrontation both with corruption and the realisation that even for those faithful in its service, the State's probity can be a delusion The characters relate to the investigation and to wider concerns. They display political perceptions. Indeed, they are almost too eloquent for the form that Mr Williams has chosen for this, his first novel. It is a long way from Mayhem Parva where conversation centres on homes and gardens. For all that, the essential ingredients - a missing child, a dismembered corpse- and blackmail - remain, artfully distilled by a bright new talent. Mathew Coady Guardian RED CITROEN The modestly impressive debut of a sternly likable Italian policeman/ sleuth: Comissario Trotti, middle-aged detective in a provincial city near Milan-an unflashy fellow with a loving teenage daughter and a sullen, straying wife. Trotti's first appearance is set during the time of Aldo Moro's kidnapping, and late-20th-century Italy's terrorist-shadowed lifestyle is gently, insistently underscored throughout. ("We live in a country that makes monsters out of human beings," one of the characters tells Trotti.) The two seemingly unrelated cases at hand: the kidnapping of six-year-old Anna Ermagni, daughter of a taxi driver; and the discovery, piece by piece, of the body of an aging prostitute. Trotti concentrates on the kidnapping- even after Anna is (very oddly) retuned unharmed. . . and after the higher-ups have ordered him to end the investigation. His sleuthing leads him to focus on a red Citroen involved in the kidnapping-a car once owned by the city's Communist mayor! So there are political pressures galore as Trotti (distracted by his wife's arrest in a local gambling den/nightspot) persists, eventually linking the murder with the kidnapping. . . and with the radical tendencies shown by the offspring of city bigwigs. More convincing in ambience than similar recent offerings (Timothy Holme, Magdalen Nabb) and nicely balanced between shapely plot twists and muted, off-beat character portraits, the low-key but quietly engrossing start of a police procedural series. Kirkus, 15.6.84 Timothy Williams. St. Martin's, $11.95 ISBN 0-312-66630-6 Williams plans a series on Commissario Trotti, a conscientious detective in a northern Italian city. His début makes a gripping story, with skillfully humanized characters. Aldo Moro has been seized by the terrorists in Rome at the time when Trotti is trying to solve local crimes. His godchild, little Anna Ermagnani, is abducted at the same time that a woman's butchered corpse is found in the Po River. Against the orders of the mayor and Trotti's superior in law enforcement, the detective devotes himself to investigating the killing and the kidnap case. As he persists, with the help of loyal allies, Trotti scratches away at the façade of probity he finds in many politicians, and readers feels his gradual, painful disillusionment, loss of belief in the republican ideal. Moro's martyrdom and Trotti's decision about his career cap the novels staggering events. Publishers Weekly 24.6.83 Here's a TIMELY NOVEl, set in Modern Italy just after the kidnaping of Aldo Moro that begins with disappearance of a six-year-old girl whose family is not rich enough to pay a sizable ransom. Her Godfather. however, is Commissario Trotti of the police. ~k ho is determined to see the case through to its conclusion, even with his case load that includes a search for a murderer of an unidentified victim and keeping track of the Red Brigade members in his district. As Trotti gets deeper into the coils of the investigation, he becomes mixcd up with corruption which touches everyone involved. Written by an author who, while not Italian, brings us a glimpse of authentic contemporary life in Italy, Williams writing is clever and interesting and presages a series featuring Commissario Trotti, a welcome addition to the ever growing field of investigative policemen. West Coast Review of Books Italy in 1978 is stunned by acts of terrorism. In the middle of all the mayhem. Police Commissario Trotti's god-daughter is kidnapped with no apparent motive; the child's father, a taxi driver, has neither monetary nor political value. Trotti interviews a potential witness - a young doctor who lives across the street from the scene of the abduction. The doctor talks of the plight of the physician in training, the lack of practical experience available, his personal distrust the Police and claims he didn't see a thing. But we did. "The Red Citroen" uses the police procedural to prove the rapidly deteriorating body politic of today's Italy, carving out vivid slices of life with a cutting edge named Trotti. A trip to the provinces uncovers unrepentant fascists ensconced in the extremities. Slipping into the kidnapped girl's school, Trotti observes an educational structure flawed by too little parental concern and too much bureaucratic attention. From the bowels of the police headquarters to the control complex of the city hall, he battles one bureaucratic clot after another. Even after his god-daughter is returned unharmed, Trotti persists in probing for one of society's agents of infection. A dismembered body, disaffected radicals, a dying journalist, a red Citroen - these become sharply detailed specimens. Trotti finally corners the killer - and his Job and his marriage are in jeopardy. Then, and only then. does he get to the heart of the problem: The real crime is his own distorted sense of duty. None of the crimes described in the book do as much damage as Trotti does to himself. That revelation surprises the reader as much as it does the commissario. It also makes Timothy Williams novel considerably more than a mere police procedural Bob Moyor Grand Rapids Michigan Press 23.10.1983 This so-called "thriller" is about the kidnapping of a small girl from a village playground in northern Italy. Little Anna Ermagni disappeared without a trace from the park in May 1978. The Red Brigades, an Italian terrorist group, are the suspected kidnappers. These same terrorists were responsible for the real-life kidnapping and assassination of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro at about the same time. Unfortunately, while the story of Anna's kidnapping made good material for a thriller, The Red Citroen proved disappointing. There was little that was thrilling about wading through 200-plus pages of a poorly written book. Police Commissario Trotti, the child's godfather, is engaged in the predictable search for the whereabouts of Anna. He questions everyone in excruciating detail. After a short while, the reading got tedious. The plot moved ever so slowly. Clearly, The Red Citroen is not one of St. Martin's more interesting books. It hardly qualifies to be called a "thriller." Gary Sokolow Volante, South Dakota 12.11.83 The scene is Italy in the timeof the abduction of Aldo Moro, and life is hard for all police, especially for Commissario Trotti, detective in a city in Northern Italy. In Trotti the author has created a new figure who, judging by this first effort, may be around for many books to come. Trotti's god-daughter has been kidnaped, parts of an unidentified body keep turning up around town, Trotti's flighty wife has departed, leaving him with his wondering daughter. And it becomes clear that the higherups wish, then command, that he ease off on the investigatory pressure. But Trotti is an old-fashioned man ... Anniston AL Star 2.10.1983 This thriller, published under the title "Converging Parallels" in GB, is bound to have problems finding an audience here. "The Red Citroen" introduces Commissario Trotti a police officer in a provincial Italian town who is investigating the kidnapping of his godchild. The action takes place just after the Aldo Moro kidnapping. Trotti, world-weary but not yet cynical must conduct his investigation amidst both national and local political intrigue and the upheaval of his own family. The book isn't so labelled but it reads like a translation. Sentence structure is awkward, requiring slow-paced reading. Although some Italian terms are footnoted, the set-up of the complex Italian police system is never fully explained. For American readers, it's a confusing morass. This thriller also is remarkably depressing. Yes, it's full of atmosphere and suitably strange characters, but somehow a disheartening story is not really what one looks for in a thriller. Carol Schaal South Bend Tribune 23.10.83 The Red Citroen (St. Martin's, $11.95), the debut of London-born Timothy Williams, is a placid tale of police investigation in a politically turbulent city in Northern Italy at the time of the kidnapping of Aldo Moro. Commissario Trotti has his own kidnapping case, which his masters don't want him to investigate. He has also the various parts of a corpse turning up in the river Po, and he's supposed to be lavishing all his attentions on some nonviolent but noisy young socialists. All this while his doctor wife is finding her diversions outside their home. Trotti risks his career stubbornly poking into the kidnapping, and at the end it all comes together in an unexpectedly tidy package. AJH Armchair Detective Winter 1984 This first book in a proposed series introduces the incorruptible Italian police Commissario Trotti. An admirable figure, Trotti single- mindedly pursues the solution to the kidnapping of a six-year-old girl, while the attention of many is focused on the more spectacular kidnapping of Aldo Moro. Insights into contemporary Italian provincial living keep the reader interested in a sometimes slow-moving narrative. LJ 1.9.1983 Crime novels suspense novels mystery mysteries I gialli verita Giallosera Leonardo Sciascia Raymond Chandler Maigret Carlo Emilio Gadda Giorgio Scerbanenco Attilo Veraldi Carolo Fruttero Franco Lucentini Laura Grimaldi Bruno Ventavolis Andrea Pickett Silvano la Spina Loriano Macchiavelli Corrado Augias Andrea Camilleri Lindsey Davis Steven Saylor Loris Rambelli Storia del "Giallo" Italiano The Story of Italian Detective Fiction Donna Leon Commissario Guido Brunetti Michael Didbin Aurelio Zen Timothy Williams Piero Trotti Commissario Trotti Commissaire Pavia Pavie Italie Italia rhubarb sweets boiled sweets barley sweets Ticino Tessin Po River lac Garda lago Pisanelli Magagna pubblica sicurezza carabinieri Agnese Pioppi Oltre Po Ganna Years of lead, anni di piombo, Aldo Moro Red Brigades Brigate Rosse, Converging parallels Convergenze parallele The Puppeteer Persona non grata Montreur d'ombres Black August Big Italy St. Martin's Rivages Mondadori il poliziotto è sola The Red Citroen Metal Green Mercedes The White Audi Traduction: Nathalie Godard Seuil Fleuve noir Cherchez la femme Return from Cayenne Guadeloupe French West Indies Antilles French Caribbean Martinique Guyane bagne Devil's Island Pointe à Pitre juge d'instruction