Search - The Smell of the Night (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries)

First Line: The shutter outside the wide-open window slammed so hard against the wall that it sounded like a gunshot.

When Emanuele Gargano, owner of King Midas Associates, disappears after bilking millions of lire from people in a pyramid scheme, it's up to Inspector Salvo Montalbano to get to the bottom of it all. As with most of the books in this delightful series, the fun is in tagging along with the inspector while he uses both official and unofficial channels to test his theories. In between lavish meals at home and in local Sicilian restaurants, Montalbano thinks nothing of thumbing his nose at his superiors, badgering his own officers, and wheedling information from any promising source.

After momentarily getting off on the wrong foot when reading the first book in the series, I've grown to appreciate and to enjoy this wily inspector who has no patience for cliches or stupidity. (I've also learned not to read any of these books when I'm hungry!)

Normally I don't go out of my way to mention translators unless something strikes me as being awkward or not quite right, but in this case I have to mention Stephen Sartarelli. Somehow, some way, he manages to translate colloquial Sicilian into excellent English prose-- while still retaining a feel for the original idiom. That cannot be easy, but he certainly makes it seem as if it is.

Wonderful characterizations, a very strong sense of place, mouth-watering meals for foodies, sly humor and perfectly paced plots have made this series one that I highly recommend to anyone looking for an excellent mystery series to read.

This is Book 6 of Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano mysteries. The hero brings his slackerish but intuitive approach to investigate a Ponzi scheme. Montalbano is as usual loutish, forgetful and inconsiderate to his subordinates, housekeeper, and mistress. He's also a glutton and readers have to be patient with voluptuous descriptions of food and eating and drinking. The evocation of the geography of Sicily appeals. One feels sympathy with Montalbano who mourns its transformation into a concrete wasteland. The nostalgic tone will remind one of Simenon saying goodbye to his Paris in the late Maigret novels of the 1960s and early 1970s. Ignore my reservations and read this if you liked the other ones.

Another great mystery. Montalbano becomes more and more human with each book!