Inspector Montalbano #1

The Shape of Water – Andrea Camilleri

Set in Sicily in the early 1990s, this mystery is the first novel to star series hero Inspector Salvo Montalbano. It begins with the death of a local big shot Silvio Luparello. His partly-clothed corpse is discovered in a BMW by two garbage collectors. The body is found near a disreputable area called The Pasture frequented by the dope dealers, dope fiends and prostitutes that cater to all proclivities.        

Important people in business, politics, the church and Our Gang seem relieved that an autopsy reports Luparello died of natural causes. Without any loose talk of The Pasture, they want to get him below ground as soon as possible so life can go as before. But Inspector Montalbano asks for a few days to be able to investigate the case, which his superiors don’t even want to call a “case.”

But such are the ways in an ancient traditional culture run by self-interested syndicates, nothing is what it seems. Pious words deceive and stalwart deeds betray. Montalbano begins to suspect that the powers-that-be want to blacken Luparello’s reputation and the standing of his political faction by having it look like a cover-up is being conducted to screen the nasty circumstances of the death.

The mystery story, in all honesty, is nothing exceptional. The fascination of the action lies in the fast-paced sketches of Montalbano’s interviews with subordinates, superiors, and persons of interest. Montalbano is a man of integrity who does not allow himself to be tricked by appearances and tries to bend the law and twist the nose of the law’s accountants, bureaucrats, and propagandists in their incessant war against the weak and vulnerable. For instance, Montalbano works against the secret authorities by helping out garbageman Saro Montaperto and an expatriate woman the bigwigs were trying to frame for the death.

From the social critique point of view, even in this first Montalbano novel, Camilleri is pitilessly examining Sicilian culture and “its stupidity, its ferocity, its horror.”

He depicts the unholy intersection of sexual passion and abuse within a family and their connections with the corrupt political system. It’s not the case that morals are degrading in these dark days because mistreatment of the decent has been harsh and constant for years. Incestuous relations, also featured in later novels like Paper Moon, are reflections of the age-old exploitation of the comely by the nasty, of the young by the old, of the calm by the psycho, of the vulnerable by the powerful.

Camilleri draws a straight line connecting social and political corruption with the two garbage-collectors who are college-educated guys. After literally centuries of misrule and misgovernment by such big wheels, degenerates and their enablers, what can we expect but that the potential and abilities of intelligent people ready to work be squandered?

So, from the very first novel, Camilleri identified his medium and message and went on to write 27 more Montalbano novels. Sure, a couple of them are not up to the high standards of the best ones. But remember that Camilleri was 69 years old when he started this series in 1994. It seems miraculous to me – exhausted by writing a book review – that again and again he successfully produced stories that demanded creating, writing, revising, and all the other cognitive strains of writing a novel.