Fiori sopra l’inferno

Traveni, an imaginary village nestled in the Friulian mountains, is the scene of a series of inexplicable crimes, on which Teresa Battaglia, commissioner of Udine and expert profiler,  is called to investigate. Teresa is a woman who is both strong and fragile, and who is suffering from a disease capable of taking away her wit and memory. She is accompanied by her assistant Panisi and the young inspector Marini.

The detectives will have to deal with a closed community, locked in an attempt to hide the rot that pervades it; the only ones to remain unscathed by this atmosphere of silence are the children, who will become the Commissioner’s allies in the search for truth. In the background of Teresa Battaglia’s investigations, lies the wonderful forest of Tarvisio, which extends for 24 thousand kilometres in the Friulian Alps, between the Carnic and Julian Alps, in an area where three countries touch, Italy, Slovenia and Austria. The forest is home to beech and, higher up, to pine and both silver fir and spruce trees.

The latter grows in very few places and is called “resonance fir”, because it is used to obtain wood to build high quality stringed instruments. Animal enthusiasts can find the alpine hare and ptarmigan in the forest, along with many other species typical of the mountains, including the golden eagle, deer and ibex. The backdrop of the main character’s personal life is the city of Udine, with some of its most beautiful and characteristic corners being framed, such as the Loggia del Lionello, a historic building in Piazza Libertà, recognizable thanks to its typical coating with alternating bands of pink and white stones.