I have always written, whether it be poetry, lessons, courseware or angry notes on the fridge to my wife and son. Writing is an emotional release, a way of saying things that you don’t have the time or energy to express during the working day.

I have had my poetry published in several collections and literary journals. I have written two somewhat complex, obscure novels and notwithstanding the many compliments on my style and the kind words received, I’d had difficulty in finding a willing publisher. Besides, I guess you never know if someone is really complimenting you when you receive a selection of rejections. I decided that I needed a more structured approach to writing so I decided I would write a crime novel.

In 2019, I was teaching a group of judges and ex-judges in Bologna. It was a state sponsored courses that certain Italian institutions organise for privileged social groups and during those lessons, we started to talk about the Bologna massacre of 1980. That year, there was a terrorist bombing of Bologna Centrale railway station, which killed 85 people and injured over 200. It was Italy’s most serious terrorist attack. Although several members of the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR, Armed Revolutionary Nuclei) were subsequently sentenced for the bombing, there is still a lot of controversy over who was actually responsible. Some commentators accuse the far right, some accuse the far left. The secret services of several countries and many foreign terrorist groups have been investigated.

I did a lot of reading around the subject and decided that the whole incident was so compelling and there were so many conspiracy theories that reverberated around it, that there was probably enough material for a novel.
So, with a little dose of reality and a whole lot of imagination, I set about writing. I created the classic private investigator character, the villain, Carlos the Jackal, the corrupt Italian politician couldn’t go amiss. Who’s not going to identify with that? A little bit of love interest and off I went.

I disciplined myself to recount a straightforward narrative in chronological order, with a basic structure, using simple ideas and style. It is an attempt to narrate events in a more disciplined way than I had used in the past, I tried to eradicate any complex descriptive passages in a more high-flown poetic style. When I edited and it sounded like I was showing off, I just eliminated the offending paragraph and rewrote it as I actually perceived it, like I saw it happening step by step, in front of me.

I remember that year I was free 3 or 4 mornings a week and I just leaned into it. I’d write in streams and just throw the ideas down and then work back through, correcting the dialogues and description, the structure, the punctuation and spelling. It took me about three months to get a first draft. I remember I was quite free at that time in the mornings and able to throw myself into it without any great personal sacrifice. Whenever I am creating something that is fun, I don’t regard the time as ever being wasted.

Finishing the first draft is always a worrying moment because you risk thinking that the hard work is done. Personally, I find it much more difficult to rewrite rather than to write. You have to be relatively harsh on yourself and willing to bin whole chunks if they’re not up to standard. Revise, revise, revise is not bad advice.
I sent the novel to Wallace Publishing and they agreed to take it on. After some intense editing, the COVID years and a series of other bureaucratic setbacks, the book came out in July this year.

As an aside, in September my collected poems were published by Hidden Hand Press so, at the moment, I am promoting both books.

Mitchell Rose and the Bologna Massacre is a crime story that explores the last fifty years of cross-fertilisation between the Italian criminal underworld, its secret services, politics and the judicial system.

When Mitchell Rose is called to Milan by Remo Rhimare, a local judge who wants him to investigate the Bologna bombing of 1980, he knows it would make more sense to turn the job down.

To make things even more complicated, Rhimare also wants Rose to rein in his errant daughter, who is becoming increasingly wayward.

As Rose begins to investigate, the two missions surprisingly become one, culminating in a dreadful dramatic climax.

Enjoy an Excerpt

I twitched nervously. The will to move out of there and toward the action was strong. I wanted to be an integral part of the scene that I could see reflected there in the mobile phone. Alessandra raised a hand and made a gesture that encouraged me to stay put. In doing so, she touched me softly on the left shoulder with her long fingernails. Being discovered there would put me back to square one. Robuyuki was gonna get his from Cambio’s guards, but I had to stay still, I couldn’t move.

“It’s also my favourite drink.” The chef offered.

“But you don’t drink, Robuyuki.”

Robuyuki lifted the glass to his lips and forced the drink down his neck, licking his lips with satisfaction.

Cambio had been silenced and we heard the clumped, mechanical tramping of feet as they exited the restaurant. Alessandra heaved a sigh of relief and we slowly moved apart. I poured a glass of Grand Marnier into the glass that I had seized and we shared it there in the cellar. The sense of relief was overwhelming and we hugged each other, but without the intensity that there had been between us moments before. There was still a layer of fear that lay like a film across the room, and that fear had rendered us sexless siblings. Robuyuki knocked on the cellar door and we climbed back up and thanked him sincerely.

About the Author:

Mark A. Hill has an Economics degree from the University of Lancaster and both CELTA and DELTA qualifications to teach English to second language learners.

In 2005, in Cagliari, Italy, he founded English Teachers, which offers language services such as English courses, translations and interpreting. He collaborates as a translator and interpreter with the Cagliari Law Courts, several universities throughout Europe, and numerous private and public organizations both in the Cagliari area and throughout Italy.

Every summer, he teaches English for Academic Purposes (EAP) to Postgraduate students at Swansea University in the UK.

Mark A. Hill’s poetry has been published in The UK Poetry Library’s Top Writers of 2012 and the Live Canon 2013 Prize Anthology. He was highly commended in the 2015 Segora Poetry Prize and was short-listed for the Canon 2015 First Collection Prize. In 2016, one of his poems was commissioned, published and performed at The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, for the anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

Mark A. Hill has also published academic courseware in collaboration with Delfis s.r.l.

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