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.
3 The Snack Thief (2003) |
17 Angelica's Smile (2013) |
5 The Excursion To Tindari (2005) |
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aka Blade of
Light |
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aka The Scent
of the Night |
20 A Voice in the Night (2016) |
22 The Pyramid of Mud (2018) |
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23 The Overnight Kidnapper (2019) |
|
August Heat |
24 The Other End of the Line (2019) |
25 The Safety Net (2020) |
|
The Track of Sand |
26 The Sicilian Method (2020) |
27 The Cook of the Halcyon (2021) |
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28 Riccardino (2021) |
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