This was the first of Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano’s novels, and given how short it is it’s a real master class on how to set the table.

Two introductions are essential. The first is to Inspector Salvo Montalbano himself (“nervous and surly,” a quickly irritated man of appetites) and what will be the key recurring characters in the series: his friend’s sexy daughter, his Genoese mistress, and all of Montalbano’s officers, who are sort of like Maigret’s “Faithful Four” team of detectives. The second necessary introduction is to Sicily, and in particular the town of Vigàta. The main thing you have to know here is that this is a world of nearly infinite corruption and violence. Or, in Montalbano’s understanding, “the stupidity, the ferocity, the horror.” I mean, the town of Porto Empedocle, which is where Camilleri was born and was the model for Vigàta, only has a population of 15,000, but in these books the place seem to have murders occurring daily. But then English country villages have the same problem with an overabundance of homicide in the works of Agatha Christie.

Introductions are necessary because I think most readers will take a while to get adjusted to the new terrain. One thing I think really helped here is that the English translator, Stephen Sartarelli, has done a great job with a text written in what is apparently a mix of dialects (Italian, Sicilian Italian, and strict Sicilian). I knew I was going to enjoy this from the first page when I encountered some wonderful run-on sentences that kept a great rhythm. And some translator’s notes at the end helped inform me on several things that I was wondering about, like the relationship between the carabinieri and the local police, and the conversion of lire to dollars. I was, however, left puzzling over how Montalbano’s arrangement with Livia worked. Sicily to Genoa seems like a long-distance affair. Couldn’t he have found a girl a little closer? Does Livia even speak Sicilian?

Now the mystery here, especially for such a short book, struck me as quite convoluted in its mixture of family and politics and sexual shenanigans. It’s not that hard to keep straight though as there’s only one real suspect, and they behave in a wildly suspicious manner. The actual murder, however, isn’t as important as Montalbano’s uncovering all the other dirty stuff that’s going on.

Montalbano index