Terence Hill

So what's an actor-cowboy doing playing a priest-detective?
I've always liked adventure: the vast open spaces, the wind, the prairies, the canyons, the sunsets, the starry night sky but also the small frontier towns. I like to arrive by horse, knowing that at the end of Main Street there's always someone waiting for me. That's when the real adventure begins: communicating with another human being, the center of creation, and the biggest mystery of them all. When Lux Vide offered me the part of a priest-detective in a small Italian town, I accepted enthusiastically. I understood that don Matteo would meet not one, but many people in the main square of this town. He would encounter daily life, normal lives. He would investigate not only crimes, but also more importantly, enigmas of the complex human heart, with the hope of simplifying them.
There wouldn't be any cars, or anything else, blowing up, only explosions of joy and pain, of passions and feelings, in the simple flow of life, of a size that seems small. As in the experience of a mother who brings up her children day after day, the true unsung hero, taken for granted.
That some of the stories from the series have now become books, short novels collected together in books issued by San Paolo, makes me very happy. Here the characters and the readers have room to "stretch their legs", to free their imaginations to enter into the depths of Don Matteo's world.
In the omniscient narrative the interior life of don Matteo, but also the psychology of Marshal Cecchini, of Captain Anceschi, of the housekeeper Natalina, of the parish canon Pippo, the boy Nerino, Grandmother Elide, Bishop Paolo and all the characters they encounter, are illuminated by the author of these stories, Alessandra Caneva, with affectionate and passionate acuity.
That doesn't mean that the mystery plots, the suspense, the irony, the humor and the entertainment are secondary. Actually, for the reasons mentioned, the reader will find the story even more touching.
I will always be grateful to Lux Vide and Luca Bernabei for having believed in this project and having brought Don Matteo to life on TV. And to Enrico Oldoini for having started this idea and having directed it together with Leone Pompucci and Andrea Barzini. To Alessandro Jacchia for having produced the Rai series with such dedication. And to Edizioni San Paolo who with this publication, has given new value to everyone's efforts.

Terence Hill