Andrea Camilleri - Inspector Montalbano Series Books 1 to 10

The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water is the first in Andrea Camilleri's wry, brilliantly compelling Sicilian crime series, featuring Inspector Montalbano.

When the body of respected and prominent engineer Silvio Luparello is discovered in the Pasture, a rubbish-strewn site brimming with drug dealers and prostitutes, the coroner's verdict is death from natural causes - refreshingly unusual for Sicily.

But Inspector Salvo Montalbano of the Vigàta police force, as honest as he is streetwise and as scathing to fools and villains as he is compassionate to their victims, is not ready to close the case, despite pressure from Vigàta's police chief, judge, and bishop.

Picking his way through a labyrinth of high-comedy corruption, carefully planted false clues, trigger-happy Mafia members, and delicious Sicilian fare, Montalbano can be relied on, whatever the cost, to get to the heart of the matter.

The Shape of Water is followed by the second in this phenomenal series, The Terracotta Dog.

The Terracotta Dog

Set in Sicily, The Terracotta Dog is the second novel in the humorous Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri.

*Adapted for BBC4's Inspector Montalbano series*

After a cloak and dagger exchange with an ageing Mafioso, Inspector Montalbano is left haunted by the man's dying words, which lead him to a mountainside just west of Vigàta where he unearths two young lovers, dead fifty years and still embracing, watched over by a life-size terracotta dog.

Heedless of personal danger, Montalbano's drive to solve this old crime forces him on a journey through Sicily's World War II history and to the dark heart of one family . . .

The Snack Thief

Never has Inspector Montalbano's character - a unique blend of humor, cynicism, compassion, earthiness, and love of good food - been more compelling than in Andrea Camilleri's third Montalbano novel, The Snack Thief.

When an elderly man is stabbed to death in an elevator and a crewman on an Italian fishing trawler is machine-gunned by a Tunisian patrol boat off Sicily's coast, only Inspector Montalbano suspects a link between the two incidents. His investigation leads to the beautiful Karima, an impoverished house cleaner and sometime prostitute, whose young son steals other school children's mid-morning snacks. But Karima disappears, and the young snack thief's life - as well as Montalbano's - is endangered when the inspector exposes a viper's nest of government corruption and international intrigue.

The Snack Thief is followed by the fourth Inspector Montalbano novel, The Voice of the Violin.

The Voice of the Violin

The Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri is the fourth novel in the wryly humorous Inspector Montalbano series.

The commissioner kept looking at him with an expression that combined contempt and commiseration, apparently discerning unmistakable signs of senile dementia in the inspector.

"I'm going to speak very frankly, Montalbano. I don't have a very high opinion of you."

"Nor I of you," the inspector replied bluntly.

Montalbano's gruesome discovery of a naked young woman suffocated in her bed immediately sets him on a search for her killer. Among the suspects are her aging husband, a famous doctor; a shy admirer, now disappeared; an antiques-dealing lover from Bologna; and the victim's friend Anna, whose charms Montalbano cannot help but appreciate. But it is a mysterious, reclusive violinist who holds the key to this murder . . .

The Voice of the Violin is followed by the fifth novel in this compelling mystery series, Excursion to Tindari.

Excursion to Tindari

The fifth in Andrea Camilleri's hit Italian crime series, Excursion to Tindari is another darkly comic detective story featuring Inspector Montalbano.

Maybe a phrase, a line, a hint somewhere would reveal a reason, any reason, for the elderly couple's disappearance . . .

A young Don Juan is found murdered in front of his apartment building early one morning, and an elderly couple is reported missing after an excursion to the ancient site of Tindari - two seemingly unrelated cases for Inspector Montalbano to solve amid the daily complications of life at Vigàta police headquarters.

But when Montalbano discovers that the couple and the murdered young man lived in the same building, his investigation stumbles onto Sicily's brutal 'New Mafia', which leads him down a path more evil and more far-reaching than any he has been down before.

Excursion to Tindari is followed by the sixth novel in the Inspector Montalbano series, The Scent of the Night.

The Scent of the Night

The Scent of the Night is the sixth comic detective novel in the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri.

Montalbano learned how hard it was to put on a wetsuit while in a dinghy speeding over a sea that wasn't exactly calm. MimÌ, at the helm, looked tense and worried.

"Getting seasick?" the inspector asked him at one point.

"No. Just sick of myself."

"Why?"

"Because every now and then I realize what a stupid shit I am to go along with some of your brilliant ideas."

When an angry octogenarian holds a terrified and lovelorn secretary at gunpoint, Inspector Montalbano is reluctantly drawn into the case. The secretary's boss, a financial advisor, has vanished along with several billion lire entrusted to him by the good citizens of Vigàta. Also missing is the advisor's young colleague, whose uncle just happens to be building a house on the site of Inspector Montalbano's very favourite olive tree . . .

Ably abetted by his loyal and eccentric team, Montalbano, the food-loving, commitment-phobic inspector, returns for another delicious investigation served up in vintage Camilleri style.

The Scent of the Night is followed by the seventh book in the series, Rounding the Mark.

Rounding the Mark

Rounding the Mark is the seventh darkly humorous novel in Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series.

Increasingly disillusioned with his government and the world in general, Inspector Montalbano is considering retirement. He is starting to feel his age, and even his favourite restaurant has closed. But when he bumps into a dead body during a bracing swim, his detective instincts are aroused once more. Particularly when the most likely identity of the victim is a man already long buried . . .

Rounding the Mark is followed by the eighth novel in the Sicilian series The Patience of the Spider.

The Patience of the Spider

The Patience of the Spider is the eighth novel in Andrea Camilleri's wryly humorous Inspector Montalbano series.

'A brother,' he said.

Jesus Christ! Now where'd this brother come from? Whose brother? Montalbano had known from the start that between all the brothers, uncles, in-laws, nephews and nieces, this case was going to drive him crazy.

Chief Inspector Montalbano is on enforced sick leave. But when a local girl goes mysteriously missing, the whole community takes an interest in the case. Why are the kidnappers so sure that the girl's impoverished father and dying mother will be able to find a fortune? The ever-inquisitive Montalbano steps in, to get to the heart of the matter in his own inimitable style.

The Patience of the Spider is followed by the ninth novel in the series, Paper Moon.

The Paper Moon

Paper Moon is the thrilling ninth instalment in the Inspector Montalbano series, by Italian author Andrea Camilleri.

As he gets older, Inspector Montalbano is plagued by existential questions. But he doesn't have much time to wax philosophical before the gruesome murder of a man - shot in the face at point-blank range with his pants down -commands his attention. Add two evasive, beautiful women as prime suspects, dirty cocaine, dead politicians, mysterious computer codes, and a series of threatening letters, and things soon get very complicated at the police headquarters in Vigàta.

Paper Moon is followed by the tenth book in the Inspector Montalbano series, August Heat.

August Heat

August Heat by Andrea Camilleri, is the tenth instalment in the Inspector Montalbano series, adapted as a major BBC4 television series.

Montalbano quickly slammed the trunk shut and sat down on top of it. When the beam from Livia's torch shone on his face, he automatically smiled.

'What's in the trunk?' Livia asked.

'Nothing. It's empty.'

How could he possibly have told her there was a corpse inside?

The lazy, slow month of August at the height of the Sicilian summer is, Inspector Montalbano assures his girlfriend Livia as they prepare for a relaxing holiday in a villa he has found for them, far too hot for any murders to be committed. But when Livia's friends' young son goes missing, a chain of events is sparked which will certainly ruin the Chief Inspector's pleasant interlude.

A secret apartment and a grisly find in an old trunk are just the beginning, as Montalbano navigates his way though the case, as well as coping with the sweltering heat, the suspicious death of an Arab labourer and the tempting lure of a beautiful girl . . .

'A magnificent series of novels' Sunday Times

'Wonderful Italian detective stories' Guardian