Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Inspector Montalbano #2

The Terra-Cotta Dog - Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli (translator),

This is the second of the Inspector Salvo Montalbano mysteries, which are set in 1990s Sicily.

300 pages may strike us time-pressed readers as too long for a police procedural, but the plot twists and brisk action justify the length. Bringing to mind Josephine Tey's A Daughter of Time (in which a convalescing cop exonerates Richard III through research), Montalbano, recovering from being shot during a meeting with an informer, works on a 50-year-old murder case.

Montalbano is hard to like: arbitrary and secretive with subordinates, abrupt with friends, thoughtless with his mistress Livia, and monstrous toward Anna who foolishly adores him. Half a dozen characters tell him what a jerk he is, but he can't help his behavior.

The translator Stephen Sartarelli has provided an excellent notes section at the end that explains background of Berlusconi-era Italian politics and society and Sicilian culture and phrases.

The Shape of Water

The Dance of the Seagull

The Terra-Cotta Dog

Treasure Hunt

3 The Snack Thief (2003)

17 Angelica's Smile (2013)

Voice of the Violin

Game of Mirrors

5 The Excursion To Tindari (2005)

A Beam of Light

The Smell of the Night

     aka Blade of Light

     aka The Scent of the Night

20 A Voice in the Night (2016)

Rounding the Mark

A Nest of Vipers

The Patience of the Spider

22 The Pyramid of Mud (2018)

The Paper Moon

23 The Overnight Kidnapper (2019)

August Heat

24 The Other End of the Line (2019)

The Wings of the Sphinx

25 The Safety Net (2020)

The Track of Sand

26 The Sicilian Method (2020)

The Potter's Field

27 The Cook of the Halcyon (2021)

The Age of Doubt

28 Riccardino (2021)

 


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