The Paper Moon

#9 Inspector Montalbano series set in Sicily, Italy. Once again, beautiful women and corrupt men pepper Inspector Montalbano's investigation into the death of one Angelo Pardo, a pharmaceutical representative. There's Angelo's sister Michela--who reported him missing and his mistress Elena, whose husband is older and impotent and allows his wife her sexual freedom. Both seem to be playing off one another, blaming each other for Angelo's death, and both are definitely suspects and not telling the whole truth, but when Angelo's connection to some corrupt politicians comes to light, there are a whole host of other possibilities as well. While the mystery was rather obvious, as always, I enjoyed the whole package of being deposited into Sicily, with its weather, the food, the atmosphere of Montalbano's world. These books read very quickly but are by no means cozy--there's a lot of sexual innuendo and content and graphic descriptions of the violent crime scenes. It's hard to know since it's written and set in a different culture if the author is trying to be 'sensational' or if this is just what's expected of crime fiction in Italy. At any rate, I loved this entry in the series no less than others but as I've read two in short order, am now content to wait another couple of months before I get to the next one.

This review actually applies to all of the Montalbano mysteries. They are, in my opinion, a perfectly balanced product; clear, sparse writing style (kudos to translator Sartarelli), a reasonable length, a fantastically engaging main character with equal parts pith, humor, grit, brusqueness, and humanity...one is reminded of the Chandler quote:"If I wasn't hard, I wouldn't be alive. If I couldn't ever be gentle, I wouldn't deserve to be alive." Add to this a mouth-watering array of Sicilian cuisine, a wonderful supporting cast of quirky characters jincluding many intriguing and beautiful women, lots of local color, and what's not to like?? These books are instant classics, and they stand with the best work of Simenon because of their essential humanity.

Inspector Monalbano is even better than Brunetti. Donna Leon and Andrea Camilleri are the best at their trade. Both weave an interesting story with comments on life in Venice and Sicily. Both keep you interested in their private life, family life and what they eat. Wonderful books.

"The Paper Moon" by Andrea Camilleri. Translated by Stephen Sartarelli. Penguin Books, 2008. I thought I had him. I have enjoyed the "Inspector Montalbano Series" by Andrea Camilleri and I thought that I had figured out this book. The plot was straight forward, (or so I thought). It had to be organized crime taking vengeance on the dead man, Angelo Pardo; we would discover the reason as the book progressed. The two beautiful young ladies were just thrown in to build up the emphasis on the sexual innuendo of the murder. But, what beauties they are! In other Inspector Montalbano mysteries, Andrea Camilleri has emphasized Italian cooking, so much so that it is impossible to read his novels without becoming hungry. In "The Paper Moon", he describes the physical attributes of the two ladies with the same skill in writing. The ladies, however, appear to be the main suspects. Page by page the author builds up the case against first one woman and than against the other and then both as a team! I was certain I knew which woman was the murderess. I will not spoil the book by telling you whether or not I was right or wrong. In most of his books, the author uses the character of Catarella as comic relief. On page 211, Catarella comes across as true person. He is working on a set of three computer files, trying to determine a pass word, (Catarella's malapropism is "past word"), which would permit Inspector Montalbano to ascertain where Angelo Pardo's money was coming from and where the money went. All of a sudden, the computer screen goes blank and the three files disappear. Catarella screams, "Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh"! Catarella sees all the work and hours going down into the black face of the monitor. Once, I was on an engineering team, performing a reliability assessment of the computers at Malaysia Liquefied Natural Gas. The electrical power in the town in Malaysia was always going off. My fellow engineer was just about to save all his work when the lights dimmed and went out. He screamed, "Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh", just like Catarella. Unlike Catarella, my fellow engineer stood up, yelled "F----" and punched the computer monitor on the side of the cabinet. So, Andrea Camilleri has captured a vignette that rings true to life ... and, by the way, made me want to read more of his analyses of life in a police setting. As usual, in the Inspector Montalbano mysteries, the reader does not get a hint at the origin of the title until late in the book. Also as usual, Stephen Sartarelli has done an excellent and engaging job of translating from the Italian.

Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano mystery series is one of life's great pleasures. Wonderful, witty writing. Humanity and terrible inhumanity juxtaposed. Complex characters with meat on their bones and, sometimes, evil (or larceny, lust, hate or greed) in their hearts. "The Paper Moon" has all of these winning qualities plus a terrific, multi-layered and serpentine plot. In "The Paper Moon," The indefatigable Inspector Salvo Montalbano faces a trio of formidable female antagonists while sorting out a murder with erotic trappings, and he doesn't have a solution until the last few pages of the novel. And this, for me, is one of the most enjoyable things about Camilleri's stories--the complexity of their plots rarely gives away the ending before it is actually reached. The setting for the book being Sicily, there is always a whiff of the Mafia in the story's telling, but the author never resorts to the obvious in bringing it to a close. A perennial bonus look at Sicily and Sicilian society is part and parcel of "The Paper Moon" as well. This is one of Camilleri's most enjoyable stories to date. Highly recommended.