The Sicilian Method

By: Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli - translator

Narrated by: Mark Meadows

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

Critic reviews

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

Among the most exquisitely crafted pieces of crime writing available today . . . Simply superb

One of fiction’s greatest detectives and Camilleri is one of Europe’s greatest crime writers

Not as good

Unfortunately, not one of his best.
I love the Inspector Montalbano stories but in my view this one falls short of the usual high standard.