Showing results by author "Stephen Sartarelli - translator" in All Categories

On a gloomy morning in Vigàta, a call from Fazio rouses Inspector Montalbano from a nightmare. A man called Giugiù Nicotra has been found dead in the skeletal workings of a construction site, a place now entombed by a sea of mud from recent days of rain and floods. Shot in the back, he had fled into a water supply system tunnel. The investigation gets off to a slow start, but all the evidence points to the world of construction and public contracts, a world just as slimy and impenetrable as mud.

A wave of refugees has arrived on the Sicilian coast, and Inspector Montalbano and his team have been stationed at port, alongside countless volunteers, to receive and assist the newcomers. Meanwhile, Livia has promised their presence at a friend's wedding, and the inspector, agreeing to get a new suit tailored, meets the charming master seamstress Elena Biasini. But while on duty at the dock one late night, tragedy strikes, and Elena is found gruesomely murdered. Between managing the growing crowds at port, Montalbano works to weave together the loose threads of the unsolved crimes.

The lawyer and journalist Matteo Teresi discovers the existence of a secret sect whose members include priests, politicians, and regional VIPs. During the early morning hours, when the town’s churches are closed, the "Sect of the Angels" meets in the sacristy to carry out their holy office: initiating devout virgins into the rites of married life. Preying on their victims’ naivete, the hooded "elect" commit ignominious acts while promising the young women divine grace. In 1901, at a time of immense changes in Sicilian society, the scandal breaks nationwide.

Inspector Salvatore Montalbano wakes from strange dreams to find a gruesomely bludgeoned horse carcass in front of his seaside home. When his men come to investigate, the carcass has disappeared, leaving only a trail in the sand. Then his home is ransacked, and the inspector is certain that the crimes are linked. As he negotiates both the glittering underworld of horseracing and the Mafia’s connection to it, Montalbano is aided by his illiterate housekeeper, Adelina, and a Proustian memory of linguate fritte.

When a colleague extends his summer vacation, Inspector Salvo Montalbano is forced to stay in Vigàta and endure the August heat. Montalbano’s long-suffering girlfriend, Livia, joins him with a friend - husband and young son in tow - to keep her company during these dog days of summer. But when the boy suddenly disappears into a narrow shaft hidden under the family’s beach rental, Montalbano uncovers something terribly sinister.

Inspector Montalbano enjoys simple pleasures - delicious food, walks along the water, the occasional smoke - yet these are just the backdrop to his duties as a detective. His latest case is the killing of the wealthy Cosimo Barletta. Thought to be a widower living out a quiet life by the sea, Cosimo's sudden death by gunshot to the neck opens up his past to scrutiny. What Montalbano uncovers is Cosimo's trove of salacious photographs, used to extort young women, and a history full of greed and corruption.

A "wild west" tale of two brothers who battle both the state and a mafia empire in 1920s Italy, from famed Italian author Andrea Camilleri. Raffadali, province of Agrigento, 1920s. The Sacco brothers are free men with strong ideas about socialism and the state. Their lives change radically one morning when their father, Luigi Sacco, receives an anonymous letter from the local Mafia demanding protection money and is the victim of a robbery attempt. Luigi tells the police of the extortion letters he received, but the police don't know what to do.

Sicily, April 16, 1677. From his deathbed, Charles III's viceroy, don Angel de Guzmàn, marquis of Castel de Roderigo, names his wife, donna Eleonora, as his successor. Eleonora di Mora is a highly intelligent and capable woman who immediately applies her political acumen to heal the scarred soul of Palermo, a city afflicted by poverty, misery, and the frequent uprisings they entail. The marquise implements measures that include lowering the price of bread and establishing stipends for young couples wishing to marry - all considered seditious by the conservative city fathers.

Rounding the Mark is the seventh darkly humorous novel in Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series. Increasingly disillusioned with his government and the world in general, Inspector Montalbano is considering retirement. He is starting to feel his age, and even his favourite restaurant has...

The Scent of the Night is the sixth comic detective novel in the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri. Montalbano learned how hard it was to put on a wetsuit while in a dinghy speeding over a sea that wasn't exactly calm. Mimì, at the helm, looked tense and worried. "Getting seasick...

A Voice in the Night is the twentieth compelling crime novel in the phenomenally successful Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri. It occurred to him that he might not have had anything to do with Strangio's death. It was a voice in the night, an anonymous voice, that had told him this...

The fifth in Andrea Camilleri's hit Italian crime series, Excursion to Tindari is another darkly comic detective story featuring Inspector Montalbano. Maybe a phrase, a line, a hint somewhere would reveal a reason, any reason, for the elderly couple's disappearance . . . A young Don Juan is...

The Shape of Water is the first in Andrea Camilleri's wry, brilliantly compelling Sicilian crime series, featuring Inspector Montalbano. The goats of Vigàta once grazed on the trash-strewn site still known as the Pasture. Now local enterprise of a different sort flourishes: drug dealers and...

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...

Set in Sicily, The Terracotta Dog is the second novel in the humorous Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri. *Adapted for BBC4's Inspector Montalbano series* After a cloak and dagger exchange with an ageing Mafioso, Inspector Montalbano is left haunted by the man’s dying words, which...

The Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri is the fourth novel in the wryly humorous Inspector Montalbano series. The commissioner kept looking at him with an expression that combined contempt and commiseration, apparently discerning unmistakable signs of senile dementia in the inspector. "I'm...

August Heat by Andrea Camilleri, is the tenth instalment in the Inspector Montalbano series, adapted as a major BBC4 television series. Montalbano quickly slammed the trunk shut and sat down on top of it. When the beam from Livia's torch shone on his face, he automatically smiled. 'What's in the...

The Overnight Kidnapper is the twenty-third Inspector Montalbano mystery, from the international bestselling author Andrea Camilleri. After a hectic morning involving two rather irritating cases of mistaken identity, Inspector Montalbano finally arrives in his office ready find out what's...

Never has Inspector Montalbano's character – a unique blend of humor, cynicism, compassion, earthiness, and love of good food – been more compelling than in Andrea Camilleri's third Montalbano novel, The Snack Thief. When an elderly man is stabbed to death in an elevator and a crewman on an...

The Treasure Hunt is the sixteenth gripping novel in Andrea Camilleri's bestselling Inspector Montalbano series. Montalbano opened the door to step out. But Gallo held him back, putting one hand on his arm. 'What's in there, Chief?' 'If it's what I think, it's something so horrific that it'll...