I read Inspector Montalbano #18 for the European Challenge 2024.
Game of Mirrors – Andrea Camilleri
Set in Sicily in the early 2000s, this police procedural stars the series hero Salvo Montalbano. His appeal is his relatability. He’s getting deeper into middle age, so he can’t run or swim or stay up late like he used to. Plus, his nemesis Dr. Pasquano the coroner rides him obscenely on account of his slipping brain power. In fact, Salvo’s memory seems to be deteriorating, his logic is inappropriate, and his process of decision-making slapdash. He gives in to impulse. He tends to rely on insights garnered from dreams. And when he is stressed by an unwanted duty – like sign paperwork or deal with superiors – he’s apt to kid himself into procrastination or tell outrageous falsehoods to escape the burden.
As I said, relatable: we middle-aged people do not do as Salvo does but we often want to. And we don’t blame him for doing what he does.
Another plus is that in this outing the plot is a little more intricate and tantalizing than the two before The Treasure Hunt and by the numbers Angelica’s Smile. This installment starts with Montalbano investigating who placed bombs to blow up two empty warehouses and who vandalized his pretty neighbor Liliana’s Suzuki.
The investigation leads up to two murders committed so mercilessly that they could have been done only by organized crime and over high-stakes criminal enterprises. An anonymous letter writer succeeds in misleading Montalbano and his trusty subordinates Fazio and Augello. Thus we get the allusion in the title to how funhouse mirrors distort reality to make us conclude the false things we see are true representations of the world. This is a theme the writer liked, being a writer who wrote mysteries, not a mystery writer.
The familiar cast of characters are another attraction. The femme fatale is always a recurring character though her name will change. The subordinates of Inspector Montalbano include the womanizer Augello, mangler of messages Catarella, maddeningly efficient Fazio. His persecutors are martinet police commissioner Bonetti-Alderighi, sex maniac prosecutor Tommaseo, and Salvo’s pugnacious girlfriend Livia. Playing bit parts are Nicolo the journalist, Enzo the restaurateur and, salt of the earth Adelina the housekeeper and cook. Doubtless critical readers will yell Basta at same-old same-old, but we faithful readers feel smart when we identify even tiny variations within a framework that is reassuring in its changelessness.
The last two good points is that Camilleri writes a fast-paced story with lots of dialogue and exposition conducted in paragraphs of not more than three or four sentences. It reads incredibly fast. Finally, the ending takes us back to the Camilleri of the first half-dozen books, with Montalbano taking the roles of judge, jury and executioner, with a pinch of malice and wonder that the ferocity of criminals and delusions of leaders never seem to change.
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