Andrea Camilleri says that crime fiction writers fill a void in society European crime fiction, particularly Scandinavian noir, is enjoying a huge boom with novels such as Stieg Larsson's The Millennium Trilogy and Henning Mankell's Wallander. But Italian noir is emerging as a force inspired by the dark side of Italian society.
Faced with the grim reality that many murders go unsolved, Italian writers are drawn to stories that offer no simple resolutions or happy endings.
"We write more noir in Italy than traditional thriller. This is because we are more pessimistic about human nature," says Giancarlo De Cataldo, who became a crime fiction writer after serving as a judge.
His experience of meeting members of the infamous Rome gang, the Banda Della Magliana, has inspired his novel Romanzo Criminale.
The story reflects the activities of the gang, which was one of the most powerful Italian criminal organisations during the 1970s and 1980s, controlling drug and gambling networks in Rome, as well as being associated with kidnappings and murders.
Andrea Camilleri Author“In truth, there are few cases that are resolved with definite certainty, and in Italy there is no longer even the certainty of punishment”
"There is a grey zone between the normal citizen, the power, the legal economy and the underworld," says de Cataldo.
"Romanzo Criminale is more than a thriller, it's a historical and political crime novel."
And it is this theme that has come to encapsulate Italian noir novels today. Through their novels, authors are drawing on their experience of another side of contemporary Italy, of organised crime, political corruption and unsolved murders.
"In truth there are few cases that are resolved with definite certainty, and in Italy there is no longer even the certainty of punishment," says Sicilian writer Andrea Camilleri, whose Inspector Montalbano Mysteries explore the mafia.
"Fiction can tend to give the mafia a noble character," he says.
"In the Godfather, for instance, Marlon Brando's incredible performance makes us forget that here is a man ordering killings by the dozen.
"This is the risk that you run that in some way the mafia is glamorised and I refuse to do that."
Author Massimo Carlotto was wrongfully convicted of a murder during Italy's Years of Lead But the examination of Italy's society and the deep-rooted problems it faces has moral implications which noir writers battle with.
"The poor crime fiction writer begins to ask himself some questions," says Camilleri.
"He says, do I really have to be the one to sew the torn fabric of
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