Tlettax by Kenneth Caruana

Published by Horizons Publishers, 2020

After Qtil fis-Skiet (2006) and Kuntatt Fatali (2001), Kenneth Caruana plunged into a much longer thriller, with an even more intricate plot, in his novel Tlettax. Nine years have passed since his last book, bringing a maturity that has improved his writing skills and which is also the fruit of thorough research carried by the author with great care.

Through this novel, I also feel that the thriller genre in the Maltese language has also reached a certain level of maturity. In Tlettax, a title that is inherently esoteric and that arouses great curiosity, Caruana works on a case in which, chapter after chapter, he makes the reader feel a voyeur who is learning everything that is happening in the story about the protagonist William and his mental state.  The reader ends up surprising himself. As in the best modern foreign thrillers, nothing is linear about the way we find out who the protagonist is, what led him to being sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, and the obsession that plunges him into mad loneliness.

The novel opens with a scene in a prison where William attempts suicide. We soon realise that Caruana had to fully research the prison environment, both the local one and that of the country where the action takes place. Other environments also needed to be investigated, for example that of newspaper circles in war zones, and dilapidated places in turbulent political times such as those in Bosnia and Somalia.

It was in such environment that William worked before ending up in prison for the crime he committed with a specific purpose. The author could not risk being unconvincing, and he succeeded in being credible because he was very well-prepared. We find, for example, the experiences a kid relates to William when he was in Sudan, or what William had written, in one of his reports from Somalia, about the atrocities a certain Fathia went through – extremely moving events.

The narrative is then interspersed with the timely insertion of streams of thought, rather delusional, colourful flashbacks and ruminations

One must not forget the research that needed to be done by the author to be convincing when it comes to the description of the characters, the areas of the prisons where they play their role, and the medical condition of PTSD. The author required full knowledge of the PTSD condition due to the role it plays, practically from beginning to end, in the plot.

One must also mention the skill with which he depicts the sessions between patients in prison and the psychologists who follow them. It is obvious that the author did an intense research and talked to many professionals working in the mentioned fields. Something which Caruana, in fact, acknowledges in the introduction he wrote to the book.

However, the way he keeps the reader constantly on the lookout for the protagonist’s mental state and the motivation behind his actions, stems from the author’s writing skills. Not to spoil the pleasure readers take in gradually discovering the disclosure of this motivation, I will  just say that behind the suicide attempt that opens the novel, there is a meticulous plan, albeit dangerous and diabolical.

The narrative is then interspersed with the timely insertion of streams of thought, rather delusional, colourful flashbacks and ruminations revealing the confused thought process of the protagonist, that the author had to somehow distinguish from the rest of the text. And even here he succeeds. Thus, he makes sure that the protagonist’s ruminations are recognised through the use of italics in the text:

“The back door of the ambulance opened wide. He could see a dead girl lying on a stretcher. He moved closer to her. He saw her hands clasped in a fist, her long brown hair covering half her face and her eyes closed.”

When the author takes us back in time, he helps the reader by using a slightly smaller font to make the flashbacks clear throughout the novel. The narrative is not lacking from compelling descriptions at key moments in the story. For example:

“The symphony (Franz Liszt’s Liebestraum) began slowly, with sweet, gentle notes, the same gentleness of hers. Then suddenly the notes intensify, reminding him how out of nowhere, unexpectedly, the bloody attack took place. Lana, her mother, and those who happened to be with them, entrapped, began to choke by swallowing the poisonous gas...”

Last but not least, one cannot help but observe the very natural dialogue in the novel. I recall the scene where a particular fight breaks out in prison. The words flow so naturally and in a very realistic way, similar to watching a dialogue unfolding in a movie. I have to say that Caruana was consciously combining the action with the dialogue with great skill and attention, perhaps with the idea of rendering his book into a kind of script for a television series. Who knows!

There is much more to be said about this third novel by Caruana. If I continue, however, I would risk revealing too much of the story. And certainly, that doesn’t do anyone any good. A modern and exciting thriller, Tlettax will surely get any thriller lover hooked on reading until the end.

Tlettax is a finalist for the National Book Prize 2021