Product Description

Montalbano learned how hard it was to put on a wetsuit while in a dinghy speeding over a sea that wasn't exactly calm. Mimi, at the helm, looked tense and worried. "Getting seasick?" the inspector asked him at one point. "No. Just sick of myself." "Why?" "Because every now and then I realize what a stupid shit I am to go along with some of your brilliant ideas." When an angry octogenarian holds a terrified and lovelorn secretary at gunpoint, Inspector Montalbano is reluctantly drawn into the case. The secretary's boss, a financial advisor, has vanished along with several billion lire entrusted to him by the good citizens of Vigata. Also missing is the advisor's young colleague, whose uncle just happens to be building a house on the site of Inspector Montalbano's very favourite olive tree ...Ably abetted by his loyal and eccentric team, Montalbano, the food-loving, commitment-phobic inspector, returns for another delicious investigation served up in vintage Camilleri style.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22287 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 350 pages

Sunday Times
'Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano is a delight...I love
these novels.'

Guardian
'The Sicilian adventures of Inspector Montalbano are always a joy
and Camilleri's latest novel is no exception'

Guardian
'Camilleri...is a supreme master of his craft...do try him -
you're in for a treat.'

Customer Reviews

right in the middle!
Camilleri writes about our world, and this time is the turn of finance wizards and economical miracles.

The plot is simple: the owner and manager of a financial joint disappears, and thousands of people in the Vigatá and Montelusa province find that their savings are gone for good. King Midas was not what he seemed, and a lot of money is gone forever. At the same time, an agency employee disappears, too. Only a woman accountant stays, obviously in love with her boss, and unable to believe that he'll never come back, that he is a thief.

Montalbano is at loss because this does not look like a mafia crime, as everybody would like to believe. He is not familiar with this kind of crimes, with this brave new world where money can be stolen but cannot be found again. He starts a complicated investigation with a surprising and somehow logical ending. Global financial capitalism is not innocent and brings its own tragedies. In the end greed, love and sex mix up in a tragedy that unlike financial economy, has face, eyes and body. That's why Montalbano's police instinct is more useful than the help of finance police.

Many of Camilleri's types are here: stupid policemen and judges, crazy people, beautiful women, greedy young people, honest old men, mafia, and above all, Sicily.

Read and enjoy!

Best so far
This is arguably the paciest and least put-downable in the series to date. The characters have developed and matured, and Montalbano is starting to seem more credible as he twists, turns and agonises his way through his world. This is not a book to read out of order - sorry, you need to go through the highs and lows of the other 6 to get the best out of it, but it is worth it. There is less of the Sicilian scenery and more of the storyline and the characters, and I think it is the better for it, although the glossary at the back of the book is always handy!

Authentic Italian dish
I came across this book by chance and thought I would give it a go. It did not disappoint. A traditional detective story involving murder, deceit and blackmail allied to a touch of Gothic horror, it draws the reader into the community and landscape of Sicily. Inspector Montalbano is engaging and sympathetic and his love of the sturdy regional cuisine adds to the vivid picture of his world. The translator has tried to capture the colour of the local dialect with varying degrees of success; it can be a bit distracting and the English sometimes comes out awkwardly. Helpful notes at the back explain the more obscure literary and local allusions.

Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a good detective story.