#53: The Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri

Inspector Montalbano is in a squad car that swerves to miss a chicken, and smashes into a parked car; shortly thereafter a grisly murder is discovered, sending the policeman sifting through clues in The Voice of the Violin.

Andrea Camilleri has written a long and popular series of police procedurals featuring Montalbano, that have spun off into other media platforms in his native Italy and elsewhere.

I pick one up whenever I come across one, and enjoy them; the mysteries are solid and the characters quirky, bordering sometimes on comic. Montalbano's own personal code of honor, and his vast appetites--for food, and for attractive women whether they might be witnesses or suspects--always plays a role as well.

I listened to this one on audiobook on loan from the New Castle-Henry County Memorial Library in New Castle, Indiana.

#23: A Beam of Light by Andrea Camilleri

World-weary Sicilian cop Montalbano deals with a spate of crimes as a long-time relationship falters in Andrea Camilleri's A Beam of Light.

Camilleri has written a long-running series of police procedurals that have been popular in Italy and world-wide, and I grab one whenever I find one (this one I landed for a shiny quarter at a library book sale).  They are in general broadly comic, with gritty crimes (though this one sports an especially melancholy ending).

Here there are arms smugglers, art thieves, and other general criminal types, all framed by a prophetic dream Montalbano has at the outset of a trying week.

Camilleri's novels are solid mysteries with an international flavor.  I read this in a few nights while, ironically, in Italy.

#21: The Terracotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri

While trying to solve a series of contemporary crimes, a Sicilian police detective finds a pair of long-dead lovers in a sealed cave; working both cases, past and present, is at the core of Andrea Camilleri's The Terracotta Dog, the second in his popular Inspector Montalbano series.

This series has been recommended to me, but I did not come across one of Camilleri's books until I stayed in a hotel in Florence, Italy and stumbled on one on the swap shelf. 

I found Camilleri's novel to be a good police procedural with funny, often raunchy, overtones. There is a lot of cultural flavor and unique characterizations in The Terracotta Dog that separates it from other crime writing.  The main detective is especially memorable with a lot of interesting personality traits.

I read this rather quickly towards the end of my visit to Italy.  I will be looking for more of Montalbano's adventures in the future.