A book I first read as a teenager, before
reading its English translation last year following the advice (and borrowing
the copy) of my boss’s former boss. I was actually surprised by the quality of
the English translation, able not to stifle the myriad of colours of the
Sicilian dialect. Of all the Camilleri books this is probably my favourite because
of Montalbano’s work of, essentially, historical research (although this novel
sees in its early pages the death of Gegè, one of my favourite secondary characters).
Commissario Montalbano is half Maigret (his intuition)
and half Carvalho (his love for food). In addition, he has a way with women
that neither of the other two have. This novel in particular shows a more
sentimental side to the man, as he works to unravel a mystery that, much like
the murdered, has been buried for decades, fully aware that its resolution will
only matter for a couple of elderly people.
Although, like my former boss’s boss remarked,
it’s quite funny to see how the mobsters in Montalbano’s novels are always so
charming and polite (I wouldn’t go as far as saying that they are men “of solid
principles” although they definitely do have principles of some kind...).
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