Una storia semplice

Una storia semplice is a very short detective novel by Leonardo Sciascia from 1989. It is the last novel by Sciascia, which he wrote shortly before his death.

The title translates as: A simple story. Sciascia shows that the narrated events are by no means easy, but rather various criminal machinations are hidden under the surface.

action

On Saturday, March 18, 1989, at 9:37 p.m., the police station in a small Sicilian town received a call. The caller poses as Giorgio Roccella and he says he found something in his house, the police want to come over soon and have a look. The commissioner on duty knows that Roccella is a former diplomat who has not been to his house in Sicily for 15 years and therefore does not initially believe that he has really returned. The brigadier of his department is instructed to drive to the country house the next morning and see that things are going well.

Once there, the brigadier found Roccella dead at his desk, a note in front of him that said "Ho trovato." (I found it.) A pistol on the floor next to him. The brigadier searches the house, finds used glasses and other traces. A staircase leads to the attic, but he cannot find the light switch. Next to the country house are stables that secure completely new bars.

The police are initially convinced of Roccella's suicide. The brigadier does not believe in it, but because his own people do not give him a hearing, he turns his observations to the rival Carabinieri . The case is then actually recorded. The dead person's personal details are ascertained and his last hours are reconstructed: he had come into town, ate in the restaurant there, then took a taxi to his country house. The Questore immediately suspects the wife, who is separated from Roccella - but the brigadier knows that the two have been separated for twelve years.

Professor Franzò says that his old friend Roccella wanted to look for old letters in his Sicilian house. He called him from the country house, where someone apparently installed a telephone in his absence. He found a lost picture in the house.

While the police are still in the process of reconstructing all the facts that have been gathered so far, a local train stops near the city for an unusually long time in front of a red signal. A passing Volvo driver drives to the station to inform the manager and does not come back. The train driver also sets out and finds all three workers murdered in the station. The Volvo driver is suspected and arrested. During interrogation, he said he saw three people rolling up a carpet in the train station. However, a comparison with photos of the railway workers shows that he apparently never saw the real railway workers. Nevertheless, the Volvo driver remains in custody.

Professor Franzò is interrogated by the magistrato who is his former student. He tells him to his face that with poorer Italian and more thought he might have made further progress. The magistrato grabs Franzò.

Roccella's wife and son arrive from Stuttgart and Edinburgh. There is a dispute: the son does not want to sell the inheritance. His mother tells him that he is not Roccella's biological son at all. She dismisses the murder of her husband with reference to Sicilian customs. Her son testifies that a certain Padre Cricco should look after the country house in his father's absence. During interrogation, Padre Cricco supports the suicide hypothesis: Roccella was a sad man.

Somebody must have handled the gun with gloves on. It couldn't have been Roccella himself. When the house is searched again, the brigadier finds that the bolts in front of the stables are gone. It smells strange inside. In the house, the inspector climbs up to the attic and immediately switches on the light, although the switch is hidden behind a statue. The brigadier and the professor talk about this self-exposure of the commissioner and realize that the picture was apparently just a carelessness in a business that was about much more.

The first thing the brigadier found in the office the next morning was that the inspector was wearing gloves. He starts cleaning his pistol and talking about shooting. The brigadier realizes that his life is in danger. He takes out his own pistol and shoots the superintendent at the last second when he is already aiming at him.

The case is largely solved: Roccella surprised the criminals in his house, whereupon the inspector shot him. Image and drugs were hectically removed after the murder, and the railway employees who were not compliant had to die. The brigadier is acquitted: the death of the commissioner is an accident, judged the authorities. The Volvo driver is also released. On the way out he meets Padre Cricco. Later, in the car, he remembers that he has already seen him: as a station master in the train station. But he doesn't want any more trouble with the police and goes home singing.