Montalbano’s colleagues, chance encounters, Sicilian mores, even the contents of his fridge are described with the wit and gusto that make this narrator the best company in crime fiction today
The Guardian
Among the most exquisitely crafted pieces of crime writing available today . . . Simply superb
Sunday Times
One of fiction’s greatest detectives and Camilleri is one of Europe’s greatest crime writers
Daily Mail
A troubling murder investigation may see Montalbano find his answers on a theatre's stage in The Sicilian Method, Andrea Camilleri's twenty-sixth novel in the Inspector Montalbano mystery series.
'Even the contents of his fridge are described with the wit and gusto that make this narrator the best company in crime fiction today' – The Guardian
Mimi Augello is visiting his lover when the woman's husband unexpectedly returns to the apartment. Hurriedly he climbs out the window and into the downstairs apartment – but finds himself swinging from one danger to another. In the dark, he sees a body lying on the bed.
Shortly afterwards another body is found, and the victim is Carmelo Catalanotti. A director of bourgeois dramas, he had a harsh reputation for the methods he developed for his actors: digging into their complexes to unleash their talent, a traumatic experience for all.
Are the two deaths connected? Catalanotti scrupulously kept notes and comments on all the actors he worked with – as well as strange notebooks full of figures, dates and names.
Inspector Montalbano finds all of Catalanotti's dossiers and plays, the notes on the characters and the notes on his final drama, Dangerous Turn. Indeed, it is in the theatre where he feels the solution lies . . .
'One of fiction’s greatest detectives' – Daily Mail
Andrea Camilleri is one of Italy’s most popular writers. His Inspector Montalbano series has sold over sixty-five million copies worldwide and been translated into thirty-two languages, as well as being adapted for Italian television aired on BBC4.
Camilleri’s iconic police-procedural series transports the reader to the fictional town of Vigàta on the sun-drenched Italian island of Sicily. However, all is not as idyllic on the isle as it looks, with reports of crimes and mysterious occurrences keeping the police department busy.
Inspector Montalbano is at the forefront of any investigation, tackling every case with his astute detective work, fractious manner and reliance on delicious meals eaten in perfect silence. The novels see him uncovering Mafia-led activity, tracking down murderers and drug-rings and stopping inexplicable overnight kidnappings. The series begins with The Shape of Water, in which Montalbano is called to The Pasture, a trash-strewn site favoured by drug dealers, where the body of an engineer has been discovered . . .
'Inspector Montalbano is one of fiction’s greatest detectives and Camilleri is one of Europe’s greatest crime writers.’ Daily Mirror