Treasure Hunt

The Inspector Montalbano Mystery

By: Andrea Camilleri

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Interest in Andrea Camilleri's taciturn but epicurean inspector is at an all-time high. And with three of the last five novels in the series, including the award-winning The Potter's Field, hitting the New York Times bestseller list, this latest installment is certain to up the ante and win over a multitude of new fans.

In Treasure Hunt, Inspector Montalbano is hailed as a hero after news cameras film him scaling abuilding, gun in hand, to capture a pair of unlikely snipers. Shortly thereafter the inspector begins to receive cryptic messages in verse from someone challenging him to a treasure hunt. Intrigued, he accepts, treating the messages as amusing riddles - until they take a dangerous turn.

©2013 Andrea Camilleri; Translation by Stephen Sartarelli (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Best narrator

I love this series and have listened continuously for 15 books. The books are interesting, funny and engaging. I can’t say enough about the reader, Grover Gardner. He makes every character come alive !

A Great Series with a Great Reader

Any additional comments?

Grover Gardner does not simply READ Andrea Camilleri's "Inspector Montalbano" books---he PERFORMS them. Camilleri's wry dialogue and Gardner's spot-on narration makes this series a joy to listen to. Camilleri is a great storyteller. The dialogue and banter between the rather dyspeptic Inspector Montalbani and his colleagues is always entertaining. Likewise, Camilleri's often caustic observations about life in Italy (and Sicily, in particular) are fun to listen to. The mysteries in the Montalbano books are often rather convoluted and require some suspension of disbelief---but, again, they are generally quite enjoyable. And Camilleri's wit is quite impressive. (The books are also wonderfully translated from the original Italian.)

One caveat about "Treasure Hunt": For a book that starts off with a great deal of wry comic situations, the book takes an extremely dark turn at the end. The book starts off in very much a comic "Thin Man" vein, and suddenly becomes "Silence of the Lambs" at the end. It is a strange, incongruous mix. The resolution of the "treasure hunt" of the title is quite dark. And although I am generally willing to allow Camilleri to stretch credulity for the sake of a good story, the conclusion was a bit hard to take.

My reservations aside, it is still an entertaining story. And few audiobook narrators are as enjoyable to listen to as Grover Gardner.

The series continues to be good but…

Montalbano’s story might be getting a bit stale. There’s a lot of repetition. This story was good though and I will continue to listen to these books.

Performance outstanding but story - not so much.

Any additional comments?

I have listened to all of Andrea Camilleri books and, as usual, Grover Gardner is amazing.

Unfortunately for this book what begins as a simple but interesting mystery ends as a horror story. It was just too dark. The writing is as good as always but with each word I was more uncomfortable. And by the end the police were not the only ones nauseated.

In the past I have read Montalbano books before going to sleep each night but will not do so in the future.

GORY DETAIL. UNLIKE OTHERS

I ENJOY EACH OF THE MONTALBANO STORIES, THIS ONE WAS VERY SLOW IN GETTING THERE, AND SHARED SOME AWFUL AND GORY DETAILS. NOT MY FAVORITE. IT SEEMS EACH STORY GETS DARKER . I WISH IT DIDNT