The Smell of the Night

An Inspector Montalbano Mystery

By: Andrea Camilleri

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

The Smell of the Night, the sixth mystery in the international best-selling series featuring Inspector Montalbano, brings the shady shenanigans of late twentieth-century international finance to small-town Sicily.

A "financial wizard" entrusted with the savings of nearly half the retirees of Vigata mysteriously disappears with the money and a young man who worked for him. In a rather atypical case for Montalbano, the inspector finds himself initially shut out of the investigation by the ever hostile commissioner Bonetti-Alderighi, and forced to work from the shadows.

Translated by Stephen Sartarelli.

Solve another mystery with Inspector Montalbano.©2001 Sellerio editore via Siracusa 50 Palermo, translation 2005 Stephen Sartarelli (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"An intricate plot and a large cast of memorable characters help lift the sixth Inspector Montalbano mystery." (Publishers Weekly)
"Camilleri's hero may be more vulnerable now, but the series is richer than ever, less smooth but with more bite, less Sangiovese and more Barolo." (Booklist)

Camilleri always delights

I will always come back to this series as I’m hooked on the characters. Inspector Montalbano Mysteries were first introduced to me by my Italian teacher, but long after I gave up on learning Italian I still enjoy these stories with their surprise endings!

Best Yet

I've read two other Montalbano novels and one collection of short stories, and this was easily the best. Well-narrated as usual by Grover Gardner, this novel's set of crimes fits in particularly well with the subplots, which involve, as Montalbano notes, the realization that his solitary, self-sufficiency is increasingly becoming a weakness rather than a strength.

Very enjoyable!

I really enjoyed this book. The narrator was good and the story carried me briskly along, with sympathetic characters, and enough twists to keep me interested. I had been reading a lot of heavy texts recently and needed a palate cleanser. This was had just the right amount of humor and wit. I will definitely pursue the series further.

Great

One of the most unusual and best Montalbano books.
Waited a long time to be able to hear it....and so glad I have finally been able to.

Among the Best Montalbanos Yet

Though in his Author’s Note at the end Camilleri describes this story as “a rather anomalous case, sort of a divertissement”, I found it one of the best in a series that consistently satisfies. The same deft mixture of the serious and the humorous, memorable characters, salty language, and loving descriptions of Italian seafood. Camilleri even needles his critics in a gentle, self-deprecating way.

If you’re intrigued, start at the beginning of this series. For it really is a series, with continuous relationships and storylines that would be inexplicable, six books in, without the background of the previous five stories.

As always, Grover Gardner is a pleasure to listen to.