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Title: The Voice of the Violin: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli ISBN: 0-670-03143-7 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 06 November, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Police mystery with an Italian flavor
Comment: This is one in a series of mysteries set in Sicily featuring police Inspector Montalbano. American readers will enjoy the different cultural context and slant, including references to Italian politics, police practices, and cuisine. What's helpful here is a kind of glossary appended to the end of the book that will help American readers make sense of some otherwise obscure references.
The plot itself is well-structured, and the murder mystery is not unraveled until very close to the end of the story. There also are some endearingly offbeat supporting characters, some excellently well-placed "false leads," and a generous dose of dry humor.
The only drawbacks here are first, that just about any work of literature loses something in translation, and there are occasional odd-sounding passages that must seem far more eloquent in the original Italian. And second, I confess that the cavalcade of minor characters sometimes confused me, as their similar-sounding names began to spin around in my head. There also are a fair number of murder mystery cliches included, such as the victim being a "gorgeous blonde," etc.
Overall, however, this is a refreshing change of pace for fans of mysteries, and those interested in how the genre is treated in an Italian context will find it fascinating and satisfying.
Rating: 4
Summary: Another enjoyable read by Camilleri
Comment: When the police car of Inspector Montalbano hits a small car parked at an apparently deserted country home, the inspector has a gut feeling that something is wrong. He finds the body of a beautiful woman, strangled in her bedroom. After a short while it turns out that the woman has numerous acquaintances in the area and that there are a fair number of suspects. The investigation is not made any easier by the fact that Montalbano's superiors are not exactly supporting him, even though his own team is squarely behind him. A combination of good policework and flashes of brilliance in the end solves the crime. In the meantime Montalbano also has to sort out the mess that he is making of his private life. And that is the nice thing about this series: it is the combination of police work and private hassles, that make Montalbano into more than your average, typical policeman-from-a-novel, but rather a real character with his good and his bad sides.
Rating: 4
Summary: Nice Misdirections
Comment: Camilleri injects some twisted ingenuity into this Inspector Montalbano plot. In many ways this has the hallmarks of a classic whodunnit, by commencing the story with the naked, murdered corpse of a beautiful woman. An obvious suspect quickly emerges, and the Inspector assiduously collects data. But the suspect dies under cloudy circumstances, which turn out to be unrelated to the original murder. Camilleri deploys misdirections, but eventually our Inspector solves it all. Aided as always by fine Sicilian cooking.
Apart from the obvious differences between Sicily and the US, alert American readers may notice something else. The book is set in 1996-7. There is common, casual use of cellphones. At that time, these were still rare in the US. A comparable American novel set then would probably have to make some glancing remark as to their novelty.
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Title: The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli ISBN: 0142003492 Publisher: Penguin USA (Mm) Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Terra-Cotta Dog: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli ISBN: 0142002631 Publisher: Penguin USA (Mm) Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli ISBN: 0142002399 Publisher: Penguin USA (Mm) Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Uniform Justice: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon ISBN: 0871139030 Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Medusa : An Aurelio Zen Mystery by MICHAEL DIBDIN ISBN: 0375422692 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 17 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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