The Voice of the
Violin - Andrea Camilleri
This mystery is the fourth of a series starring Inspector
Salvo Montalbano and set in contemporary Sicily. Character and setting drive
the plot. Salvo is easily angered and distracted, both of which make him
absent-minded and liable to make mistakes. He also has synesthesia, a
neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway
leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive
pathway. For instance, Salvo’s brain may assign colors to smells. Luckily for him, he’s a gourmand that demands
silence when eating so as to enjoy the food better. The descriptions of food
and eating are a foodie reader’s delight.
Camilleri does not make a big deal of Salvo’s synesthesia
and doesn’t refer to it in every book. But it helps Salvo to make leaps of
intuition when his emotions short-circuit his intelligence. Blending ideas and
hunches creatively may also help him to understand quickly new social milieus
and how people are compelled to behave in them. Readers that like the
questioning of people in different walks of life and shrewd investigations of
Simenon’s Maigret will find Salvo’s lack of method appealing.
Salvo is every scene and he has vigorous exchanges with
this subordinates in the police station, his friends, and his long-distance
romantic partner Livia. Dialogue and keen descriptions aid characterization and
setting of small town Sicily. Camilleri also uses shifts in tone to excellent
effect. For example, Salvo will be enjoying a traditional Sicilian dish. A
couple pages later he will act as the cynical fighter for what he thinks is right.
For him, it’s mainly uphill battles against the endemic corruption of
Berlusconi’s government, the careerism of his colleagues, and depraved human
nature that leads to grotesque crimes. Then a couple pages later the comic
character Officer Catarlla will be making the reader crack up like Officer
Toody did in Car 54 (boy, does that date me….). Then Salvo will be bemoaning
Sicily turning into a concrete nightmare due to overdevelopment, sprawl, and
road-building frenzy.
Readers who don’t require a puzzle will enjoy the
characters and settings of Camilleri’s Salvo Montalbano novels.
3 The Snack Thief (2003) |
17 Angelica's Smile (2013) |
5 The Excursion To Tindari (2005) |
|
aka Blade of
Light |
|
aka The Scent
of the Night |
20 A Voice in the Night (2016) |
22 The Pyramid of Mud (2018) |
|
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) |
|
28 Riccardino (2021) |
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