August Heat: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery by Andrea Camilleri
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Book Reviews of August Heat: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
Book Review: August Heat
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is one of the best in Italian mysteries and draws you into the place where it takes place. Its almost like a travel book in descriptions of the food. The author Andrea Camilleri can't write fast enough for me.Book Review: Keeps getting better
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a series which just keeps getting better with each installment. If you liked any of the earlier Montalbano cases August Heat will entertain and raise temperatures. Highly recommended.Book Review: Could inspector Montealbano be from another country?
Summary: 4 Stars
This review is part of a literary investigation: Does the national or cultural identity of the detective reflect the nation or culture in which he or she lives? With respect to behavior, mode of solving the mystery, political reflections, or idiosyncrasies? For inspector Montealbano, I believe, yes!
The story is imbedded in that type of criminality I - with all my prejudices and stereotypes - connect with Italy. The inspector himself is occasionally cheating and lying and being brutal (although he regrets it (p. 123). The story obviously has political messages, the inspector even reads Sjöwall & Wahlöö, the Swedish authors that write "justified attacks on social democracy", p. 118. And there are 5 pages of notes at the end that make references to Italian society. The mode of solving the mystery is probably traditional reasoning (Sherlock Holmes type) although the accompanying Dr. Watson is more intelligent than the original. However, this inspector would never be able to sole his mysteries from his home. The other characters in the story are believable, some on the border line, but then it is the borderline cases that supposedly inhabit mystery novels. Again resting on my prejudices about Italy, the characters could be typical of (Southern) Italy, probably not the Palestine - for example (Matt Rees). So, if I believe the atmosphere of the story, did I support my prejudices or did I support a real picture? (T. Walas.1995. Stereotypes and Nations.) I believe the latter.
I liked the story. The culprit was not the person I assumed, but the mystery's solution had a twist that was surprising to me. The inspector and his associates make funny jokes, but not more than comfortably. It is a book one would have liked to read in its original language
Book Review: Another great tale of Sicilian vexations
Summary: 4 Stars
Andrea Camilleri's latest Inspector Montalbano story has the Sicilian copper in trouble again with his girlfriend Livia and coping with a six-year old murder that comes with the seductive attentions of a 22-year old blonde bombshell. The story is set in a torrid mid-August when the town of Vigata is moving at a snail's pace, but the heat has set hormones racing and several cold showers a day are needed for more than one reason.
Montalbano's girlfriend Livia has come south for a visit with Genovese friends in tow. Their hilarious misadventures with a rented seaside villa lead to a far more serious mood as the body of a young girl is discovered in a hidden underground extension of the villa. Salvo's handling of the discovery of the body in turn leads to a falling out with Livia, who decamps in a snit for home with her friends.
Solving the mystery of the six-year old murder becomes Montalbano's purpose in life for the rest of the story. In his pursuit of the colorful collection of suspects, he eventually comes into very close contact with the murder victim's beautiful twin sister who seems to have a thing for middle-aged men. The Inspector tries to honor his commitment to longtime girlfriend Livia, but it's unbelievably hot, everyone is reduced to bikinis most of the day, and what's guy supposed to do with so much temptation thrown in his path. His decision to act will eventually come back to haunt him.
Author Camilleri has again assembled a wonderful cast of characters for this story and successfully evokes the summer atmosphere of his Mediterranean island which part of Italy, but not really Italian. This is a fun read and up to the high standard of most of Camilleri's books. Highly recommended.
Book Review: Is Italy/Sicily Really this Corrupt?
Summary: 4 Stars
For anyone who has read Camilleri's other novels, they know how difficult it is to get anything done in Italy without greasing the wheels. This is also reinforced by the novels of Michael Dibdin (Aurelio Zen) and Donna Leon (Commissario Guido Brunetti). There is an almost pall that wafts over the country that has lingered since the end of World War 2 and the end of the Fascist state in 1945. The corruption of the State and the acceptance by most Italians says much for the people and their take on life. Much like France, the Italians look backwards to find their future.
When friends of Livia rent a house near Vigata for a vacation, they face all kinds of problems including an infestation of spiders and cockroaches. The problem he finds is that their is another floor to the building underground. Italians will build houses that are illegal and then wait for a government amnesty. It happens so often that people see no reason to follow the rules knowing that in the near future, all will be forgiven. Even in this time of computers, the notice that is hung on the building, that it is illegal is full of stamps, ribbons and signatures that Italians revel in.
The story itself is quite weak, but I give it four stars for style and not content. At one point Fazio and Montalbano laugh that the situation they are in would make a good TV show, NO it wouldn't. I think that Signore Camilleri is getting bored with writing the series but at 84 he doesn't have a lot else to do so he keeps writing. Maybe he should get a co-author. The ending is not only unnecessary but meaningless.
Zeb Kantrowitz