Moments well spent with an old friend

books:


	• The Paper Moon (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries) Andrea Camilleri Penguin (Non-Classics), 2008 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

All is not as it seems

Inspector Salvo Montalbano is back in the ninth of this mystery series. It is a straightforward and charming novel, with the Sicilian detective embroiled in a murder case involving two beautiful women who continually lie to him. One is the sister of the victim, who was shot in the head and found with his penis protruding from his open pants. The other was his mistress, who claims she had broken off the relationship.

Meanwhile, some high-ranking government officials are found dead of overdoses, and rumors of poisoned cocaine are rife. Are the cases related? After all, the murder victim was a pharmaceutical salesman. Or was he involved with kickbacks to physicians? In between, the Inspector has time to reflect on old age and philosophy, as well as to indulge his culinary appetite.

The quaint story [a compliment, I assure you] is moved along with even more unusual observations and dialogue. It is fast reading and full of fun. Recommended.

for more information click here

according to formula

"The Paper Moon" is the ninth in a series of Inspector Montalbano mysteries. Far be it from me to give away the plot, but one criticism might be that the guilty party is more obvious than usual. Nevertheless, Camilleri's formula works. Montalbano goes about his investigation in his idiosyncratic manner, taking time for culinary adventures, literary allusions, and thoughts about women. Overall, reading the book is a worthwhile and entertaining experience.

for more information click here

Moments well spent with an old friend

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.

for more information click here

Another great book from Camilleri

Wonderfully nuanced, this most recent addition to an incomparable series manages to combine the ongoing soul-searching of Inspector Montalbano with the never-ending ills of the Sicilian world, be they criminal or not. With an enviable economy of words, Camilleri continues to paint both people and places compellingly.

Subtle Sicilian delight

This was an excellent book, and one for any fan of Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti mysteries. The author creates a vivid picture of Sicily and develops the plot and characters with singlar style and humor. Reading the book made me want to check out the author's other works in the Inspector Montalbano series.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2

The latest mystery in Andrea Camilleri?s internationally bestselling Inspector Montalbano series

With their dark sophistication and dry humor, Andrea Camilleri?s classic crime novels continue to win more and more fans in America. The latest installment of the popular mystery series finds the moody Inspector Montalbano further beset by the existential questions that have been plaguing him of late. But he doesn?t have much time to wax philosophical before the gruesome murder of a man?shot at point-blank range in the face with his pants down?commands his attention. Add two evasive, beautiful women as prime suspects, some dirty cocaine, mysterious computer codes, and a series of threatening letters, and things soon get very complicated at the police headquarters in Vigàta.

for more information click here

hot