Publishers Weekly
Early in Camilleri’s superlative 16th mystery featuring Insp. Salvo Montalbano (after The Dance of the Seagull), two reclusive religious fanatics—brother and sister Gregorio and Caterina Palmisano—start firing guns at the “sinners” in the street below their apartment building in Vigàta, Sicily. Montalbano and his team lay siege to the Palmisanos’ house and eventually disarm the elderly couple without bloodshed. Soon afterward, Montalbano finds an envelope addressed to him marked “treasure hunt.” Inside is a short poem that appears to be a riddle, the first of several such messages. While he’s inclined to dismiss them as the work of a crank, a niggling sense of discomfort remains. Meanwhile, a number of bizarre incidents puzzle Montalbano, including the discovery in a dumpster of what at first is mistaken for a woman’s corpse but is in fact a decrepit inflatable sex doll. Furthermore, it’s an exact duplicate of the one Montalbano and crew noticed in Gregorio’s bed the night of the siege. Once again, Camilleri’s sardonic sense of humor distinguishes this Mediterranean crime novel from the pack. Agent: Donatella Barbieri, Agenzia Letteraria Internazionale (Italy). (Oct.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Andrea Camilleri and the Montalbano Series
“Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano mysteries might sell like hotcakes in Europe, but these world-weary crime stories were unknown here until the oversight was corrected (in Stephen Sartarelli’s salty translation) by the welcome publication of The Shape of Water…This savagely funny police procedural…prove[s] that sardonic laughter is a sound that translates ever so smoothly into English.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Hailing from the land of Umberto Eco and La Cosa Nostra, Montalbano can discuss a pointy-headed book like Western Attitudes Toward Death as unflinchingly as he can pore over crime-scene snuff photos. He throws together an extemporaneous lunch of shrimp with lemon and oil as gracefully as he dodges advances from attractive women.”—Los Angeles Times
“[Camilleri’s mysteries] offer quirky characters, crisp dialogue, bright storytelling—and Salvo Montalbano, one of the most engaging protagonists in detective fiction…Montalbano is a delightful creation, an honest man on Siciliy’s mean streets.”—USA Today
“Camilleri is as crafty and charming a writer as his protagonist is an investigator.”—The Washington Post Book World
“Like Mike Hammer or Sam Spade, Montalbano is the kind of guy who can’t stay out of trouble…Still, deftly and lovingly translated by Stephen Sartarelli, Camilleri makes it abundantly clear that under the gruff, sardonic exterior our inspector has a heart of gold, and that any outburst, fumbles, or threats are made only in the name of pursuing truth.”—The Nation
“Camilleri can do a character’s whole backstory in half a paragraph.”—The New Yorker
“Subtle, sardonic, and molto simpatico: Montalbano is the Latin re-creation of Philip Marlowe, working in a place that manages to be both more and less civilized than chandler’ Los Angeles.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2013-09-26
Inflatable sex dolls, the delivery of a sheep's head, Harry Potter run amok: What madness has Inspector Montalbano gotten himself into now? Devout brother and sister Gregorio and Caterina Palmisano trigger a panic in the Sicilian town of Vigata when they hang banners from the balcony of their apartment warning local sinners to REPENT! Each week, a new banner appears, more fervent than the last. When police visit the lodging, the duo turn snipers, shooting at the would-be intruders. Upon searching their apartment after they are taken into custody, Montalbano finds a creepy excess of crucifixes and a blow-up sex doll with distinct markings on Gregorio's bed. He takes it home for safekeeping and adds an unlikely twin, discovered in a Dumpster. Not long after, Montalbano begins receiving cryptic verses challenging him to a "treasure hunt." He takes this invitation lightly, a bit of escapism, until a package containing a sheep's head gives him pause. When his lovely and flirtatious old flame Ingrid asks him to mentor a young friend who's passionate about law enforcement, Montalbano, seeing an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, sets the young Arturo, a dead ringer for Harry Potter, onto the hunt. The young man responds like a conquistador. The mood is abruptly darkened by the disappearance of a local teenage girl, which Camilleri expertly ties to all that has happened heretofore. Montalbano's 16th case (The Dance of the Seagull, 2013, etc.) is his most entertaining in years, veering from slapstick humor to Grand Guignol with aplomb.
