Voice of the Violin

I just discovered Andrea Camilleri recently. His books are great. Inspector Montalbano is a police Inspector in Sardinia. Probably in his 40's. If this book were made into a movie, the actor that would be perfect for the role would be, Robert De Niro. Camilleri's stories will capture you from start to finish.

Fourth in the Salvo Montalbano Italian police procedural series in which Salvo discovers the body of a beautiful young woman in her home when he stops to find out why the home's owner has not responded to a note he left when one of their police cars collides with her car that was parked in front of the home. As usual, the politics of the department and the country take the investigation over and Salvo must do his sleuthing on the sly after being taken off the case by the new commissioner. The gruff and grumpy Montalbano shows his vulnerable side too, briefly. A quick, enjoyable visit to Sicily where the author puts you right in the heart of the place, evoking smells, tastes and views that leave little to the imagination. Don't read this book (or any in the series) while hungry; the author's descriptions of the food will leave you drooling all over the book! Great series!

I have become enamoured with the Italian mystery genre in the last 2-3 years. It has been an education to explore Venice with Commissario Brunetti and Florence with Marshall Guarnaccia or Sicily with Inspector Montealbano. All three authors (Donna Leon, Magdalen Nabb, and Andrea Camilleri) know their locale and focus on the daily lives of the citizens, while moving along a rip-roaring story. But there are significant differences - Leon and Nabb write in English (Nabb uses British terms that remind me of Christie that break the spell) while Camilleri writes in Italian. He is Italian - he understands the importance of the land and the wine and especially the food that fuels Sicily. (The translation is superb.) Leon and Nabb certainly know their areas and their craft and they are very, very good, but Camilleri works the magic. Camilleri captures the angst and the pain and the loneliness of Inspector Montalbano. But he also captures in mouthwatering detail the need to eat with a focus on the quality and variety of food that stops the Inspector's world, even when he has to go long distances to find the right place to eat. I like to read a series from the beginning. I like to meet and greet the protagonist and then watch him/her grow with fond memories brought about by references to prior books. Voice of the Violin is one of the earliest of the very highly selected Montalbano books that have been translated and one that I come back to to reread because of how it changes, or perhaps most interestingly as you read more books, doesn't change Montalbano's life. I highly recommend all three Italian protagonists with Inspector Montalbano and Commissario Brunetti right at the top of my list of "must buy" when a new book hit the market. They take me to places I have never visited, though I now seem to know, and allow me to interact with people I would like to know better. Start with the TerraCotta Dog and move to the Voice of the Violin as you can, remembering to stop and focus on fine food prepared well along the way.

As someone who only reads a few mystery novels a year, I was overwhelmed to discover both Andrea Camilleri and Donna Leon at about the same time. Camilleri's Inspector Salvo Montalbano stories and Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti novels are so good that I wanted to read them all and was delighted to find that both authors have written at least a dozen books each. Only five or six of Camilleri's have been translated into English from the original Italian so far, but more are on the way. And many of Leon's are out of print in the U.S., but perhaps that will change in the near future. These are compelling mysteries that draw you right in and keep you hooked right up to the satisfying, if not always happy, conclusions. But that almost goes without saying. What keeps you coming back for more are the characters and the extras, in this case, the backdrops of Sicily and Venice. Stephen Sartarelli's translations of the Camilleri books are marvelous. It isn't hard to translate a book, but it is difficult to do well. He strikes the perfect balance of translating most things, but turning to explanation when translating would destroy the mood. There are a few pages of explanations at the end of each book, describing pastas and exchange rates and cultural references. For instance, he translates education-impaired cop Catarella's rough speech into something Brooklyn-esque, but he explains Boghonghi the Dwarf, apparently a famous character to most Italians, but not to Americans. (Example of a bad translation -- I remember seeing a dubbed version of the French movie A Man and a Woman that completely destroyed the romantic mood when they replaced the Edith Piaf song playing on the car radio in the original version with a dubbed ragtime tune.) I can't say which series is better, I tend to think that whichever I am reading at the moment is my favorite.

Sicilian Police Inspector Salvo Montalbano is sleeping as he is being driven to a funeral when his driver crashes into the back of a parked car on a rural road. When the sound of the crash fails to bring forth the house's occupants, the policemen leave a note. Much later on their return they find all as they have left it, and Montalbano is worried. He had good reason for worry for in the house is the naked body of a beautiful young woman, kneeling by the bed, her face pushed into the bed linens until she dies of suffocation.At one point Montalbano wonders when did "detective" novels become "mystery" novels. It is a fair question since Montalbano is the archetypal detective, slowly peeling each layer of the onion until the mystery is revealed and then solved. He is an honest cop in a dishonest jurisdiction, but is not above a little self-help. Like cops everywhere he is vulnerable to bureaucratic ambition which has the effect of hindering his work.Yet in the end, Montalbano prevails. It is altogether right that he should. And this is a book to be treasured for its ingenious plot and dry humor. Move over Lieutenant Columbo and meet one of your paisans Inspector Montalbano.