The Track of Sand Andrea Camillleri

The Track of Sand, my 12^th and final read of a Montalbano police detective story by Andrea Camilleri of the books purchased earlier in the year, and the only one in hard cover, was enjoyable and impressive.

Problems with eye sight and lack of sharpness in his general perception of life have begun to undermine his self confidence and is creative ability to connect seemingly random events and experiences into a whole is deserting him. Moreover the one relationship where he could share his love of food in silence, the process of solving crime and his bed has broken down, so that in this book the only contact with Livia is by phone ending in argument.

The story begin with a sight which understandably makes him question the line between waking dream and reality which he has sometimes experience when what happens in real life mirrors after a fashion something his subconscious has projected into the waking dawn. There was the time when he saw Caterella dying and then more recently with the opening of a coffin found on a deserted beach which I shall come to later.

In this instance has a dream about a horse and then sees one on its side in the sand along the beach from his home and upon investigation the creature is not just dead but has been badly beaten to death. However by the time he has arranged for the appropriate authorities to deal with poor creature it has disappeared an all that is left are tracks of a vehicle the sand, a hand drawn cart. There is therefore no crime to be investigated and later when he learns that a horse has been stolen this is dealt with by another district.

Rachele, a beautiful creature, this time of the human female variety which also crosses his pathway has to come to race in an a charity raising private event staged on a course on a private state of another horse racing owner and where the missing animal had been quartered for the event. She is staying with none other than his sophisticated and modern female friend Ingrid. The race is being run by someone Salvo recognises as one of the richest men in Sicily.

Salvo explains that the horse was not kidnapped as such because it is dead so when Rachele asks to see her thoroughbred he also has to reveal that carcass has also disappeared and queries as if in the Godfather, someone has made him an offer she has previously refused, She declares this has often been the situation but not in relation to her horses and where she has accepted some and refused others. Nor is she concerned it has been the act of her husband as we are introduced into another situation where the relationship is close but a not a sexual one or at least she is the kind of modern woman who does not regard marriage as an end to relationships which other men. She has no idea why anyone would want to do such a thing, and indeed as the story unfolds she is super accurate in this. Super by the way is name given to horse, an English thoroughbred.

Ingrid contacts and they agree to meet at his house to enjoy what housekeeper Adelina has prepared, usually more than adequate for two people although he sometimes consumes the food in the entirety on his own. Later in the story he eats a salad made of baby octopus big enough for four people with some giant langoustine dressed only in olive oil, lemon, salt and black pepper After the meal he had notices a boat night fishing closer than usual and this lead him to recount the adventure he had as boy night fishing and then eating some of fish fresh cooked on a beach fire. On arrival home this night he finds Ingrid in an agitated state as she had seen two men come from his home.

Ingrid stayed the night after both had become drunk on whisky sharing the one bed but in no condition or intention for anything further to occur. What were the intruders after as having checked money drawn from the bank was still in envelop in a bed side drawer but just before on his way to the office he had returned, confirming that his fathers watch had been taken.

They then discover that one the horses of Lo Duca had also been taken with the two animals in similar appearance and therefore the thieves had the two because of similarity but which had been killed and where was the other animal? Salvo wonders why all the horses were not taken at the same time. Ingrid rings to invite Salvo to attend the charity race being held the following afternoon and where she would be now riding one of the other horses available.

On the day of the races Ingrid who comes to collect him enquires if he brought money with him as everyone attending will bet on a horse with the money going to charity and the female rider on the winning animal will give those who backed a kiss The sum of money expected was between one and two thousand Euro’s and Salvo had only a hundred on him but also his cheque book, an obligatory thing to have during one period in life but few people use cheques let alone carry cheque books these days.

There were three hundred or so guests dressed in riding clothes, top hats and tails an in a rainbow of other garb which amused and puzzled Salvo greatly confirming all his prejudices about the people participating and how out of water he had become. He is introduced to people and their host announces that 600000 euros had been raised which given the wealthy of those present was not the staggering sum one might have expected. He was even less impressed when guest managed to consume the contents of two tables of antipasti before Salvo could participate and then disappear in a rush, more of an avalanche of the ravenous when a gong sounded the start of a sit down meal

During a discussion with the host Salvo is pointed in the direction of a disgruntled former member of staff. Ingrid was at table reserved for Salvo and Rachele but then departed leaving to join an old flame at another table and Salvo was quick to work out that this had all been prearranged so that he would find himself eventually alone with the desirable race winner after she had despatched her other companion. The food was as awful as it looked, even worse. Rachelle leas towards the stables where there is a large iron gate serving no purpose drawn also on the book cover.

There in a stable stall Rachele orders Salvo to mount her and he remembers the waking dream before the discovering of the dead horse on the beach. Afterwards Salvo felt he had be used and sense of shame something which women more generally will have experienced, some more frequently than others admittedly so it was good, it can be argued, for one male to experience, although in the sense of unjust that Salvo was the victim. When thy returned to the table, the dinner was over/ some guest already departed and the tables commenced to be cleared. Ingrid was waiting to drive him home commenting that he had straw all over him.

His home had been broken into but this time there was message, an unexpected one as the watch of his father was back in place. The message was clear, we want something that you have, rather than we have come to rob you of a valuable. The following morning he was woken by the scream of the housekeeper as she discovered that the house and been turned over and it would take more that one session to get it back to good order. Salvo muses that the house must have been under surveillance. The thinking back to the office that the burglaries may be something to do with the trial of Mafia figure. One of the two sons of the housekeeper, both minor criminals contacts to say he has made inquiries and no one from his circle was involved and who would consider it stupid to attempt to thieve from the home of a well known policeman. It was therefore the wok of an outside circuit but he could not say if this was higher circuit suggested by the Inspector. Salvo also had the impression that the home was being watched and worked out the watch was coming from the fishing boat too close to shore and sets up a surveillance team while he goes on a trip to view an area of temples which has become an established tourist attract action but keeping in contact.

Two men had come ashore from the boat half an hour after he had left the property. When an attempt had been made to intercept there had been an exchange of fire and one of the men and been shot but only wondered so that the other had helped him to a vehicle which was waiting and they had sped off. This was not the end of the matter and he commenced to receive threatening phone calls. His thoughts was still on the forthcoming trial of the Mafia man and the file of paper was provided for him to examine. His enquiries appears to lead to a connection the killing of one horse and the disappearance of the other as the man suggested to be behind the atrocity who was dismissed as been taken on by the mafia family involved in the Licco trial and his wife was providing the alibi as being the mistress of the accused and with him at the time of the matter with which he was being tried. Having been asked to join the Family he uses his new position to take revenge on his former employer.

It was at the point in the story that he goes with Rachele to a restaurant situated within a few minutes of the sea and they decide to try all the 15 antipastos available on the menu shrimps, langoustine, flying squid, smoked tuna, fried balls of nunnatu, morsels of squid affucati, tiny fried squid, and cuttlefish tossed in salad with orange slices and celery, cappers wrapped in anchovies, sea urchins, mussels, clams, octopus morsels, a strascinale, sardines a beccafico, and swordfish carpaccio. This reminds when a taxi was taken from the centre of Athens to the port of was Piraeus to what appeared on the outside a closed and deserted grocers shop which had been advertised in a book on Athens published by the Times.

About to go away and look for transport back an elder had come to the door and invited us , sat us down at table which was covered in a paper cloth brought a bottle of win and then over the next couple of hours brought a constant flow of small dishes , some or so more all of which I tried so that when retuning back to the hotel I was sick. However I had enjoyed the event and the food which despite distant memory of nearly fifty years ago had a remarkable similarity to the list presented by the Inspector for his meal with Rachele. In the instance of the meal at the port I have the receipt somewhere but again from memory I believe the total cost came to 12/6.

Unsurprising Salvo and his companion only had room for salad which at best was lettuce and tomatoes, although I have been offered just lettuce or just tomato, but here Salvo suggests olives black and green, celery, carrots and capers and anything else the Chef selected although in saying he would join Rachele in the salad as she had no room he appears to create a substantial dish. The purpose of the meal was to enable her to explain her behaviour on the visit to the horse race. She said that this was kind of back to front relationship skipping out all the usual preliminaries and where afterwards she either wanted no contact or reference or wanted to do everything to keep the person close to her as a lover or as a friend which was the latter situation although she understood the geographical and occupational distance the two. She also had considered mentioning something about what happened to her horse, although as he was no longer involved she had decided doing this. She had met the vet involved at the stable when going to church and he said he did not understand why they had taken the horse of the owner who was riddle with sickness and was to have been put down and not taken horse that Rachele had won the race with. Having discussed this with Lo Duca she had concluded that it was her horse they wanted to kill and not his which had been taken because they looked `alike but this had already been considered at the station and the unanswered question remained why had the other horse had not turned up.

The next development is the discovery of a body in the middle of now here and the pantomime in which the pathologist makes a performance of into answering the basic questions and winding up Salvo about the causes and timing of the death. In this instance he is eventually able to confirm that the man was shot by someone other than the person/person who had brought him to this spot. The man is traced as none other than the missing husband and former groom to the Lo Duca stables and when the bullet is checked it is of time from a gun used by the force. It is evident that this was in the unofficial surveillance at the home of the Inspector. In order to protect his office the Inspector is able to make a switch which enables him to convince the widow that her husband has been killed despite the agreement not to harm him if she testified in court. Now the alibi could be exploded and the mafia man convicted.

The case looked over until Adelina his housekeeper returned his trousers from the cleaners and the horseshoe they had found in the pocket and which he had taken from beside the animal and since forgotten about. It was a plain horseshoe as one might expect. However after talking with Rachele again she had said that her animal had horseshoes with the family crest . He worked out that this was they had come to search house and this was what the men had been after because while it remained in his possession it remedied the disappearance of the carcass useless. His call to Rachele enabled him to understand hat had happened and clever ruse plus the capture of the other man involved in the breaking in at his home provided the evidence required. Lo Duca had been requested to provide his best horse by the mafia for you in the private illegal racing that took place on the Island and elsewhere in Italy but the problem was that the animal was terminally ill. So he had sized on the opportunity of the arrival of the look a like horse to replace his own but which had broken out before it be killed and carcass disappeared. It had been killed on the beach and the carcass removed only to find that one of tell tale horse shoes was missing.

When later that evening Rachel and Ingrid arrived for a mal brining with them a cassata he decided they will eat before breaking the news that in fact Super was alive.

Although I have the notes made for season 9, season three here in the UK of the last two of the four episodes, the recordings are no longer available on the I player and were deleted from the Sky box so I have decided postponing the writing up until they are replayed, or the books are translated into English if they were teleplays.

Book 11 by Andrea Camilleri The Wings of the Sphinx

The wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri is the 11^th of the first 12 published books that I have purchased and recently completed. I have also seen a TV production of the book.

The book opens with Montalbano experiencing that point in life when one is not as enthusiastic as before about the work and his relationship with Livia suggests breaking point as neither continues to be able to meet their needs as and when required. He has also reached the stage in life where he wrestles with his self about how to deal with his predicament, represented as two people with whom he debates, sometimes writing a letter from one to the other which is a good idea rather than writing to another party!.

He is called out to the murder of a young woman in her early twenties, found naked near a place names as a bridge although the span of the bridge had been removed for its iron, after being created by the allies during World War II. The local magistrate has a theory about what happened but Salvo later confirmed by the pathologist believe she was shot in the face somewhere to be unrecognisable apart from a tattoo of a particular butterfly on one of her shoulders, stripped cleaned up and then dumped where she is discovered. The Pathologist is also reaching his time of professional life when he tire of cutting open the bodies of the very young to discover how they died. He prefers to spend his time playing poker for money at a local club.

There is a second story of a man reported by his wife as being kidnapped. Salvo and his team are forced to devote time by the Police Chief because the woman has complained about their lack of apparent interest. Their preliminary investigation suggest the event was staged and he is likely to have run off with his secretary or one of his serial conquests with Mimi Augello, his deputy suggesting two resorts. The helpful friend public broadcaster that Salvo had known and used since first coming to Vigata as the chief Inspector publishes a photo and this leads to a businessman calling who provides a photo of the man with a young woman at a club in Havana. He is also in the photo and Salvo agrees to arrange for a friend to change disappearance in the photo. The man travels regularly to Havana where he has not one, not two but three young women with whom he visits all the same day. He runs around in fast cars and has a conventional wife and children who he wishes to protect from his exploits.

Montalbano arranges for the photo of the information provider to be disguised and then gives the photo to the wife who claims it is a double and complains again that Montalbano and his colleagues are not taking the kidnapping seriously. When the man turns up with the story of having been kidnapped and roughed but managed to escape the wife claims vindication and Salvo’s bosses play I told you so. However Salvo is far from convinced and organises a meeting of the employees of the man at which he goes along with the kidnap story and being roughly treated with the implication that one of those in the room was behind the kidnapping. This leads to one of the employees owning up that the was involved in the initial kidnapping as a stunt and looked after his boss for a few days until he was due to fly out with his latest” whore. Salvo is able to vindicate himself and his colleagues.

He also arranges with his TV newsman friend for a photo of the butterfly to be circulated and this reveals that more than one woman has the same Tattoo. In this instance the sister a retired widower has arranged for a young woman to become a live in Home Care Assistant. He had spied on her in the bathroom hence knowing about the Butterfly Tattoo and the young woman had resisted his sexual approach stating with him for just under two months. I cannot remember the circumstances of her departure.

The connection between this murder and more than one girl with the tattoo only becomes evident with a chance meeting with Ingrid the young attractive Scandinavian girl he met in one his early cases and who reappears from time to time usually driving an expensive fast car. In this instance h chance encounter is to have a significant bearing on the case. They enjoy the food prepared for him by the house keeper sufficient for both and probably more given his usual tendency to over eat,. They drink a lot of whisky and she presses him about the relationship with Livia about which he remains defensive. He also admits to having become attracted with the young woman half his age, the subject of the previous novel only to find she had used him in order to gain revenge on the person who had killed her twin sister. They share the same bed but it is never clear if this is just for company and comfort or if their relationship, however casual has become more.

The following morning he is uneasy about the confessional of the previous evening but Ingrid knows better and asks about his latest case about which she knows nothing, never watching the local news but immediately comments that she employed a girl for just over a month with Tattoo as now described to her, She had disappeared stealing jewellery worth several hundred thousand Euros and her husband had reported the theft to the Carabineiri who had not contacted him. Fazio continues the search of furniture makers using the substance found under the finger nails of the victim.

Ingrid had explained that the help had been arranged through her husband‘s account and who in turn explained her had taken the young women for the catholic Charity set up to help the “unfortunate“ girls. The widower also contact to report the name of the community from the girl had come and confirm that although he had attempted to seduce the girl with an offer of jewellery after she departed he had given these to a relative and he also swore that she had been a honest young woman who he trusted. Because the girl employed by Ingrid wore contact lens he was still left with missing young women with the same Tattoo as the murdered girl.

Another girl is then identified by the son of the housekeeper Adriana who is back in prison but knows that another criminal had fallen in love with a girl with the same tattoo who Salvo then finds has also disappeared.

When the investigation of furniture restorers fails to progress the mystery solving the mystery is progressed with the investigation of a fire at a paint selling shop which the investigator consider odd because there appeared to be no forced entry and the owner did not have financial problems to justify seeking an insurance fraud. Montalbano works out what happened and his technique in getting the owner to confess is brilliantly played out. He had employed yet a fourth girl with a Tattoo who had broken in after the cash of the week had placed in a drawer making a noise which had attracted his attention and seizing a gun and shot the person.

Under recent Italian law he would have not suffered any action for taking the life in such a situation but he had panicked because it was a woman and his employee and held he woman over the weekend until dumping the body from his car. He had subsequently set fire because he had been unable to find the bits of teeth that he though he been left in the room and which he could not find.

It is after the news of his arrest is reported on local TV that a priest comes forward to day that one of the girls with a Tattoo wishes to communicate about her experience with so called charitable organisation “rescuing” the girls. She reveals that the criminal organisation which persuades the girls to leave Russia for a better life was responsible for the tattoos as form of branding one group from another and they had then forced into prostitution to pay off their debts and therefore the approach on behalf of the charity had appeared to be a welcome way out. However it emerged that the organisation so called volunteers had a deal with the mafia to pay off the organisation for the girls and then put them to work sealing from the employers where they were placed. The girl now has a boyfriend and a new life but she is willing to testify against the those to had used and abused in prevent others from her country enduring the same fate,

Through the previous books the relationship between Montalbano and Livia had become strained with both having difficulty communicating over the phone reduced to pleasantries about how they were and what they were doing. As the story of the book progresses it is agreed that they should meet and eventually Livia arranges to travel assured by Salvo that the case is closed and he is free to be with her, although she remain hesitant and determines that she will come from the airport by bus knowing of old the way work has resulted he standing waiting for hours until he has been able to message news of his delay. In this instance the discovery of a body, a key member of he charity, suggesting the mafia have intervened does detain him from his intention to surprise Livia by arriving at the airport buy he does everything possible to pass the information and inquiry on to others but Livia does not answer her mobile phone and he is unable to contact her getting more and more into state. Deciding that she has returned home and is determined not to talk to him he takes the first flight and lets himself into her home, only to find that she has left her mobile at home and that she has made her way to his home and let herself. The consequence is that they row.

Andrea Camilleri's August Heat

As promised I now turn to Montalbano and I begin with the novel August Heat. Through the genius of Andrea Camilleri we experience the insufferable intensity of the heat in the Sicilian summer and too late Detective Inspector Salvo Montalbano sends staff to locate an appropriate fan although he manages to find one fo the small hand held fans which I have also used to cope with the heat of the Mediterranean day. The police crime story of this book happens by accident, in fact and literally. He is asked to find a suitable beach house on the island for the family of a relative of Livia who also plans to stay with them rather than wait alone at his home or elsewhere for Salvo as he is consumed by the latest cases to emerge. Salvo has great difficulty given that holiday properties have long since been hired but relatively close to hand he about to find a house on its own close the sea.

Everyone is pleased with the find until after a storm with great rain the house becomes infested on three separate occasions requiring the attention of local pest control the intervention of the local major. Just when it seems the visitors can settle and enjoy their holiday the three year old child of the couple disappears. The child is find with the help of a cat and where he is located brings to attention the practice of builders and land developers to try and maximise profit from speculative venture. In this instance a couple from Germany with a simpleton of a son had built the house on a hillside but had never used the property. The son had disappeared while travelling to Germany with the husband and the husband had died subsequently so the widow had asked the building agent to get rid o the property for her.

It is not clear if she was aware that her husband had done a deal with the proper agent site developer and builder to create a second property beneath that of the owner in such a way that it was complete except for adding the windows and doorway with the space covered to ensure the protection of everything else and then the whole level hidden by earth. Then after due time application would be made for the property to recognised despite the failure to gain planning permission and comply with the contemporary local regulations. Successive governments had given amnesty to all those who engaged in this widespread practice from time to time.

In this instance Salvo is curious about a trunk left in the living room and after the boy is reunited with his family he has an explore and finds a body carefully wrapped of a young girl Given the hour and the likelihood that he would not be able to find alternative accommodation for the family he leaves official action until the morning.

Livia and the family having overcome everything else of those first days are horrified that they spent the night oblivious that a body was below with Livia in particular refusing to accept Salvo’s reasoning that the body had been there at the outset and after the trauma of the boy getting himself into the flat and she and the family immediately retreated back to the mainland but as she departed the mood is created that some irreparable about her long standing relationship with Salvo and indeed before the books ends she has departed to sail with a male relative and became incommunicado with Salvo. Meanwhile!

Pieces of the puzzle commenced to emerge. The missing girl was identified as a beautiful young woman with a twin sister just as beautiful. There is something seductive about her manner when interviewed by Salvo but he knows he must resist her charms. His attention centre on the agent and builders especially when one, I cannot remember which is found to have an interest in adolescent girls and has taken trips to places where the poor will strike deals over their children. The way in to his murky world is through those who were engaged in work on the homes and in the sealing of the second home with the body in the trunk. It is also the finding that an immigrant worker had died on another site and that it had been made to look as if the man was drunk and fallen from a properly protected height when in fact evidence is found to show that the protecting rail was purchased later although proving in a court of law would be difficult to impossible. Salvo use the information gained about this situation as leverage in relation to the death of the girl.

According to his superiors the prime suspect is however the son of low intelligence of the property owner who has the habit of accosting young women usually for a kiss or just to touch. When the body of this young man is found naked close to a railway line it is assumed by Salvo’s master that this was a suicide and the case is closed the based that the dead girl was killed by the young man who had previously shown interest in her and hidden in the home before it was closed up.

However Salvo is far convinced with the more likely explanation that the young had accidentally opened the wrong door at night instead of the toilet. This young did not have the wit to kill and hide the girl. Salvo would like to believe the guilty man is the one with the penchant for adolescent girls, although in this instance young woman was older and the man appears to have a cast iron alibi by taking a flight to the Far East confirmed when his secretary notes a telephone call at the flight refuel stop.

The breakthrough comes when Salvo finds that the suspect was unable to get the connecting flight to Bangkok and he supposes that on his intended return to Vigate he to took the road to check that work on the secret home has been completed and sees the young girl and on the spur phones his secretary to stay he has reached the stop over destination unaware that since his last trip the flight no longer stopped over. He had abducted the girl and hidden her body in the trunk after killing her. On his return he had drawn up a contract with the agent to ensure that his firm was responsible for bringing the secret home back to life when the amnesty application was granted, enabling him to then dispose of the body. All this was conjecture based on circumstantial evidence and Salvo devises a plan with the willing assistance of the twin sister in which her family offer to purchase both properties and arranges to meet with Salvo close to hand and colleagues within shouting distance.

By this time the girl has seduced Salvo and he has given her his gun to hand as an added precaution. She uses the weapon to shoot her sister’s killer and Salvo then onoy realises that was her attention all along and that far from having a serious interest in him he was used and in the circumstances he has to give the impression that eh fired the shot when the man attacked the girl although it was she who had wrenched open her blouse to incite and incriminate the man who was shocked to initially discover the purchased appeared to be the girl he had killed several years before.

He responded to the realization by taking off his clothes and going for along swim in the waters below the crime scene. He had wept as swam out anger and humiliation he had been a puppet in her hands, all theatre and make believe. He had behaved as a child and not a fifty five year old.

I listened to an interview with sir Derek Jacobi earlier to day in which he made the point that those who want to act should not but those he needed to act should do. This truth applies to all of us driven in some profession, work, action but there are prices to pay and while expert at the myopic drive, the need there is often ignorance and innocence at other aspects of life.

There is also a moment towards the book when he sets out on a table all the dishes his housekeeper has prepared in the fridge, the green olives, the cured black pass ulna olives, celery, caciocavallo cheese and six dishes, one with fresh anchovies, one with calamaretti another with perpidettri, another with squid, another with tuna and one with sea snails. Each was dressed differently with more in the fridge. In inhaled the aromas He rings Livia and she does not respond. Adriana then arrives for the invited meal.

Andrea Camilleri's The Scent of the Night

The eighth book I have read in reverse order is the Scent of the Night which is primarily a story about a financial swindle plus unrequited love.

There is a sub plot which for once is unconnected with the main story. The Commissioner discovers that the murdered mother of Françoise, the child he and Livia were to adopt but since this had taken place with the sister of Mimi and her husband and two sons, had a substantial amount of money in account where the pass book had been taken by Salvo. Now we as readers of the book in question Salvo not wanting the state to take hold of the money had asked a local Magistrate notary to take the account and invest on behalf of he boy until he was of an age to benefit. Fortunately he had received a receipt and the child been formally adopted. However in the natural course of his life he had forgotten about this and disclosed to anyone including his long distance partner Livia, his deputy Mini or he sister and her family. Being Salvo he was understandably aghast at the accusation knowing that the Commissioner was not his friend. Rather than explain the position given the attitude of the Commissioner he visits the notary who has retired and is momentarily anxious in case the money was invested in the King Midas Fund but all is well and the funds are secure and he finds the receipt which he sends without explanation to the Commissioner. With lots of goodies he goes to see the sister and explains the position which she takes in her stride. The boy now has his own horse and tells Salvo that his ambition is to become a policeman when he grows up. He also find out that Livia has been to see the boy secretly and this does not help the difficulties the couple are experiencing.

The main story begins when an angry investor tries to hold up the King Midas Associates office of the head the one man investment company who had disappeared. The swindle is a familiar one. Investors are offered an exceptional rate of interest of 20%. This is paid to the first investors which is in effect one fifth of the amount invested at that point. The consequence is that all their friends relatives and friends what to join in and offer more money as well as some of the original investors. The swindler then arranges to disappear with all these funds which he has invested in various off shore accounts. The Inspector investigates the two assistants and the secretary receptionist office keeper. According to the office assistant the young man who dealt with the computerisation of accounts had gone to Germany and would be back within a month. The team discover that in fact he had not gone to Germany but had bought a ticket to another destination which he had also not used thus attempting to provide a false trail.

They discover that this young man was having a house built on isolated land which contained the olive tree that Montalbano would visit and talk to seek answers when he was stuck on a case. When he discovers that the tree has been torn down to build the property he breaks windows and splashes graffiti and action which is discovered by an assistant who nevertheless covers up when the father of the man makes a formal complaint about the vandalism attack. Payments for the house appear to have been made direct to the young man from account of his employer but were not part of the swindled funds.

The other assistant is an attractive young woman Michela Manganaro living with her parents in a ten story block of public housing and in bed when Salvo calls and finds that she is strapping, tall and beautiful with a brief miniskirt and a blouse barely containing her other attributes. It emerged she had already been seen by his deputy and he quickly assumed seen in every despite the engagement to Beatrice and the forthcoming wedding. She regarded Mimi with hostility, hence also the Inspector because his deputy had not disclosed the engagement and marriage until after their encounter. They go on a car ride so she can talk freely and during their conversation the Inspector asks if she had slept with her boss. She laughs and discloses that he is gay and that he was having a relationship with the other assistant, the man who said he was going to Germany but who whereabouts also remained unknown. She had that from the public appearance he was courting her and his secretary Maristella who he showered with chocolates and flowers and who adored him.

The search for the assistant continued until evidence of buying but not using a ticket to Lisbon leads them back to the half built villa where they find two packed suitcases but they do not find a brief case which they find contained diskettes and computer account codes.

It is then he decides to approach a retired university teacher who has caused previous amusement mixed with irritation from reporting saving seen tings like flying saucers and aliens. The married man appears sane and sensibility but admit he does end to see things are not there but figments of his imagination but in this instance he is adamant about seeing a car and a motorbike in an area on a cliff top known to be used by lovers while taking of his usual late night walkabouts. It appears to be the car used by the missing King Midas swindler. The inspector visits the place, looks over onto the rocks below and then arranges one of his diving expeditions. He arranges for the vehicle to be raised with inside the body of the shot assistant.

Salvo began to work out the mystery and that the assistant had in turn worked out not only what King Midas was doing but how and used this knowledge to blackmail his boss and lover into ensuring their relationship was to be long term. Despite being in love with the assistant the boss knew his own future was in question wile the young man lived and had killed him. This knocked on the head the belief that the two men had been killed by the Mafia upset to find that their money laundering investments were part of the swindle. But where is he?

It then that the maestro works out that the secretary is more involved that she has let on as she did not appear surprised when the Inspector had reported various developments and concerns. She was convinced King Midas would return as would the male assistant. He learns from the friend (Voice of the Violin previously) who is a distant relative of the secretary that she lives alone in a great house inherited from her parents and that she had been very attached to her father to an extent she had not reported his death for several days as if unaware he had died. After he witnesses he involvement as a pedestrian in car accident he helps her home after she refused to go to the hospital. He persuades her to show him the home and finds King Mafia dead, shot with the briefcase nearby in a bedroom with the woman genuinely unaware he is there, repressing what she has done. After shooting his lover he turned to her for help and she had killed him, perhaps to save him from what lay ahead when he was caught. They may never come to really known her motive at the time. He arranges for the doctor to send her into a long sleep so he can have forensics in the house and remove the body the following morning. The case is solves and the briefcase will enable the authorities to find the missing money.

Having commenced with food and end with first Salvo wolfing two servings of grilled fish as first and second courses and then having an explored her finds a rural restaurant no more than eight tables in the middle of nowhere. He is given a jug of dense red wine while the food is prepared. He is offered burning piraciati something the Inspector accepts even thought he warned, “if you are up to it. His mouth burns and he chokes when it arrives and then enquires what is in it! Olive oil, half an onion two cloves of garlic, two salted anchovies, a teaspoon of fine capers, black olives, tomatoes, basil, half a pimento, salt, pecorino cheese and black pepper. Extreme cooking proving pleasure and agony intermingled. He was unable to eat a second course as it took a day for the taste buds to return! He also enjoys nannatu, flat crispy dumplings studied with fish eyes from the tiny baby fish not thrown back to the sea and cooked with lemon. To punish himself for eating a technically illegal dish he does not ear another course. Returning from an unsatisfactory day’s work and an unholy exchange with Livia as he forgets she is coming over fort he wedding and has purchased the present he has forgotten he finds a dish of patati cunsati- a potato based dish with onions, capers, olives, salt and pepper and this is the overture to the arrival of Mimi having second thoughts about the wedding and in need of several tots of whisky. During the visit to see Mimi’s sister he had eaten pasta al ragu and pork and on return he cooked himself and egg with four fresh sardines tossed in olive oil, vinegar and oregano. Feeling hungry the following day he goes to the restaurant for the pasta in squid ink and a dozen baby octopus dumplings.

And Mimi ? Well the wedding is delayed a month because of a family illness but it does take place with him as witness accompanied by Livia. And as for the book it does not satisfy as much as several of the others and I wish I had read them

Montalbano book six Rounding the Mark

Rounding the Mark is the sixth Andrea Camilleri book in the Montalbano police detective series that I have enjoyed reading over the first weeks of August 2013. I should have read the Scent of the Night, the next book in sequence but in fact Round the Mark has a great connection with Excursion to Tindari the previous book reviewed which covered the exploiting, maiming and murder of poor people, frequently migrants, for their organs by a Mafia funded and organised operation!!!!

In this book Montalbano, given his age and foodie lifetsyle, takes one of his long and potentially dangerous swims given his proneness to cramp and encounters a badly decomposed body which he manages to get ashore by using his swimming trunks much to the horror of a visiting couple whose husband keep Montalbano at bay until his colleague police officers and a TV camera arrive to give the scene a national significance.

Who is this man and how he got to where he is found is the first question followed by did Inspector Salvo Montalbano do the right thing in reuniting an illegal migrant runaway with his mother? Readers of this brilliant series will also ask what is the connection between the two events?

The book begins with Montalbano trying to work off one of his evening meal extravaganzas` where he has a tendency to consume several portions of some delicacy, presumably without side dishes, at times wolfing if he does not concentrate, hence the need to eat in silence even when he has excellent company. In this instance he mentions baby octopus a strascinasali, baby fish boiled in salted water and then dressed in olive oil and lemon juice which I have in stock but the baby octopus does not appeal while and sardines beccaficio- headless cleaned sardines stuffed with sautéed bread crumbs, pine nuts and anchovies all I have except the pine nuts but which I will try.

During the book the owner of the Trattoria where Salvo has many meals announces he is to retire and this cause the Inspector great anxiety and various trips in search of a replacement home from home. His daily help creates one meal a day and the Inspector is not content with making do with cheese, olives, salted sardines and salami as a second meal of the day. After experimenting in half a dozen places the one found which is passable involves a car journey which being such a busy man created problems. He therefore takes up a suggestion of a Trattoria recommended by a friend of his deputy Mimi. The owner chef Enzo and been waiting for him to arrive having heard thought the grapevine the Calvary, the Inspector faced.

He has an antipasto of salted octopus followed by the pasta with a sauce off squid ink(There are 12 results for this on Amazon). He then has a fish grill which included mullet, sea bass and gilthead reminding of what if the great meals experience when visiting in Northern France one year commencing with a whole dressed crab on shell and claws to crack with a bottle of white Sancerre, followed by a red mullet with more wine and the crème caramel before coffee. I still have the receipt somewhere.

As the pressure of the case built up Salvo rejects beef roulades left for him by the daily help and goes to the Trattoria Enzo for more spaghetti in squid ink followed by crispy fried calamaretti. As his mood improves he enjoys a pasta ncasiata from the oven. Having persuaded his married Swedish friend Ingrid to assist in his inquiry she takes him out for meal comprising a dish of ditalini in a sauce of fresh and properly salted ricotta with pecorino and black pepper on top. The second course was costi imbriachi, drunken pork ribs drowning in wine and tomato concentrates. He is supposed to pay but forgets his wallet.

All this food makes my hungry for good cooking but I am unlikely to try making most of the top ten public voted Italian dishes which were broadcast on More Four on Saturday August 10^th 2013 and which would have sent Salvo into raptures of ecstasy with the insistence on freshly made with the best ingredients, except there was little mention of the fish other than part of a pasta dish with, clams. The most favoured was the Pizza, not surprising and the gelato form of ice cream. I was most interested by the making of lasagne and an aubergine dish, and noted the meat balls with polenta, the wild mushroom risotto, the brochette options and the tiramisu plus finding out for the first time was is gnocchi placing the recipes in my More Four scrap book just in case. I also discovered that I have a recipe book at home on the pasta which was given when I purchased a Fiat motor car one time. All making me very hungry again at writing so I had two ready made omelettes with cheese (£1) from frozen with my coffee followed by a glass of lemonade for breakfast and a few dried figs to get me going for the rest of the writing. For lunch there is a pork chop, jacket potato and corn on the cob while later afternoon there was smoked mackerel, a cheese toastie and red grapes all with lashings of lemonade.

Back to the book the problem Detective and the faces is that while body had been dead and presumably in the sea of a month at the time it was found it could only have been in the particular current for short time and from along a short distance fo coast otherwise the current would above taken long long distance further. The answer found much later is that the body was trapped in a secret small harbour attached to one of the properties put up without planning permission, part of the new towns of such properties created along this part of the Sicilian coast. The three towns although unauthorized have electricity, running water, sewerage and gas etc and pay taxes to the appropriate municipality. These property eventually get amnesty with the officer adding that there are also several houses built on the beach. This is the significant information which Salvo will eventually follow up,

The next phase of the story begins when Salvo becomes involved in the daily arrival of migrants(tourists) taken from captured or rescued stranded vessels and spots a young body breaking from the crowd who he then finds hiding in the docks and befriends reminding of his experience of the lad in the Snack Thief who he and Livia planned to adopt before the child made it plain he wanted to stay with the sister of Mimi, her husband and their two sons. When the boy is claimed by a female migrant with other children, Salvo reunites but notes the reluctance almost pleading of the boy. The mother has an accident and is taken to the local hospital by an ambulance that is regularly on hand to deal with medical problems arising for the daily arrivals and rescues. However when Montalbano goes to see the boy and his mother at the hospital he finds there is no record and a nurse later contacts to say that on returning to the hospital she had seen a woman mother with boys getting into the car a little way from the hospital and who had not appeared injured in anyway..

The Inspector then learns that the boy is found run down and killed by a car on an isolated roadway leading to or from the new towns, where the witness although from his vantage point did not have a clear view has the impression that the vehicle deliberately changed course to hit the child. Salvo understandably is very upset. This has a traumatic effect who announces to Livia he has arranged to see the Commissioner of Police to give his resignation. Meanwhile he goes over his recollection of what happened at the dockside and this leads him to make inquiries about the Ambulance paramedic.

His assistant Fazio finds out interesting things about the man such as the shop inherited by his wife burned down from arson after failure to pay protection money. However he appears to accept the Mafia involvement, expands and gets into debt with Mafia Loan Sharks. Salvo dresses up like a gangster after having a few business cards printed and engaging the help of Ingrid (the Swedish wife he assisted in a previous case) and goes to the gift shop run by the wife of ambulance paramedic to buy a present for a friend who is getting married. The impact of the visit to cause the paramedic to ask to see Salvo at home rather wait for their morning appointment.

The terrified man confirms that he has been part fo a racket helping to bring in migrant children and escaping from the authoritative by feigning an accident and need for medical help which he is on hand to take to the hospital with the help of the driver who he pays off and then enables the woman and her charges to leave just before the hospital to be picked up by the car. He admits to doing this before involving adults and children. He had given the boy a sedative to quieten him. Salvo is so angered he hits the man and blackmails him into agreeing to go through with the next request that comes, keeping the Inspector informed throughout.

During these events the team tries to find out the identity of the dead man discovered by the Inspector when swimming he is contacted by an investigative journalist who Caterella and his ability to mispronounces everything says is Pontius Pilot. On returning home has found a letter delivered from the Journalist Fonzo Spala who having seen him TV wants to meet and talk to him about his investigation into the involvement of the Mafia and illegal immigrants.

In order to have some break through Salvo gets forensics to create an image for the dead man who is recognised as Ernesto Errera, a fugitive for two years with a long criminal record but this only adds to the mystery because the man in question died previously and was buried. However Salvo remains open minded and when someone like the man in the made up photo is reported to have been seen since the alleged burial in an area of the new towns and from a small group of private and secluded villa on the beach or with sea access, he investigates further. One of the witnesses at a garage recognises not only the man but also boy who was run down. It is evident he had been taken to a property from which he has run away and then run down. The two cases have become linked.

Salvo arranges to hire a dingy to be taken along the coast so he can view the isolated and now vacant holiday villas and discovers one with warning lights for an entrance avoiding the rocks and where there is a metal barrier into a mini harbour immediately below the property. The property was created by an American Italian known for criminality, but has been recently rented out.

Salvo has the tendency to discuss his cases which ever one fo his women folk admirers has his company and after their meal out it is Ingrid who provides the information which reveals that one of her recent lovers is that same man found by the Inspector when swimming. This is a believable coincidence given the nature fo Sicilian society and the range of affairs which Ingrid enjoys.. They had met queuing for petrol. The man was married to a girl from Cosenza who died after two years. The man she knew as Ernesto D’Iunio looked as being Ernesto Errera fugitive.

The relationship had only lasted two months and she had ended because of concerns about the man. He had cancelled arrangements to meet three times arranging to see her the following night although on the third occasion she had not gone. The second confirmatory breakthrough comes when he receives through the post a paper clipping for the death of Mr Errera that he had only been identified from documents in his wallet, the body being smashed from being it by a train in the Cosenza area! Things moved fast as next the paramedic contacted after being told to be ready for another pick up.

Salvo also meets with the journalist whose investigation concerns the trafficking in immigrant children who come in their thousands alone from Albania, Rumania, former Yugoslavia and Moldavia, Morocco , Algeria, Turkey, Iraq, Bangladesh etc. The main purpose is use them for organ transplants, to sell to paedophiles or to become part of he begging rackets.

The journalist had come to Vigate because one of the key figures of Mafia involvement in the trafficking was seen in the area, a thirty year old with an army of killers to hand and that it was believe that in the area was a holding and sorting facility for those who would be passed on, sold, or move into terrorist cells Events them move fast with Salvo getting into major difficulties from an underwater explore and then being shot in the shoulder in an exchange of fire with one of the lieutenants involved in this horrific criminal trade.They find a group of terrified children who have been unloaded directly from the smuggling vessel to the house.

The Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri

I enjoyed rhe fourth book in the Montalbano series The Voice of the Violin, even if the reason for the title does not become apparent until towards the very end. I appreciated the character development and the continuity of some storyline relationships. Having read the first book before appreciating that the TV series had placed the book first out of sequence( The Snack Thief) I was impressed at the way the writer deals with the position of Salvo Montalbano and Livia and their decision to marry and provide a home for the now orphan boy of The Snack Thief - Françoise. During the story Salvo is asked by his deputy Mimi to visit his sister Franca where she is looking after the child with her own two boys at the family farm while the adoption process is progressed and Salvo and Livia prepare for a fundamental change in their daily lifestyles.

Given what was learned about the couple from the first book read and now the previous first two are written I suspect most readers would have guessed that marriage and becoming a day in and day out family man was not something that Salvo was cut out for and that Livia was not cut out for an continuous 24/7 relationship with a self possessed confident to point of egocentricity police Inspector. In fact it takes mature and well adjusted intelligent adults to be able to enjoy and sustain a relationship where both partners have full life occupational activities from which they get their identity and satisfaction and which involves long hours, often travel during which they are separated and are able to develop relationships with others. Having watched the Swedish Television interpretation of Wallander (Henning Mankell’s The Fifth Woman over two weeks recently and presently, The Man who smiled) I have noted many similarities between the two characters and the reasons why I identify with both of them so strongly).

In fairness to Salvo while work and thinking about work takes precedence over most other things in his life the exception is food which he insists in enjoying in silence saving each morsel which is also something of a turn off for most females! I am not saying he does not enjoy sex but I suspect he rarely loses himself completely in the way many if not most people are able to do. My main surprise is that Livia has become so attached to him. I suspect her own work has taken precedence over motherhood and that while she dislikes the fact that Montalbano is often not “with her” during her weekends in Vigáta she is just as content with their weekends and occasional holidays together when he is not fully involved in solving one or more cases.

I also need to be fair that however much he understand the situation Salvo is disappointed that the child has come to appreciate the security offered by Franca and her husband and in particular that he is sharing in the family life as a brother of the two sons who have also welcomed his arrival into the family. It is Françoise who has taken the initiative in demanding to stay however much he appreciates the visits of Salvo and Livia who rescued him during his darkest hour. While Salvo understands the boy’s position and the willingness of Franca and her husband to accept him as a full member of their family he realises this will be a devastating blow for Livia, although even he is surprised at how badly she takes the news arguing that the couple are only after someone to help work the farm and his inheritance. She needs. as she does, to make a surprise visit to the farm on her own but the shock of her rejection, as it seems to her, is the greater as a consequence. Angry with Salvo who she blames for the situation, part fo her difficult to express at times more general anger at him for attaching so much importance to his work, she leaves the island with only brief contact with the man. While the relationship continues and appears to flourish at times, some readers like me will sense that a point of no return will has been reached and question if the relationship will survive and if it does for how long.

It is also a personal event which leads Salvo into the case which is the main subject of this book. The wife of a fellow Inspector in another district is reported dead after being gravely ill for sometime and he arranges to be driven to the funeral., On their way they hit a parked car because trying to avoid a chicken which runs into the road (Returning from a coach trip to watch Durham at Old Trafford Lancashire yesterday 14^th July 2013 I encountered two baby Seagulls determined to control the entrance to the back lane with a sit down and even getting out of the car to shoo them away failed. Because of the incident and going to the wrong church they fail to make the funeral and on return finding the vehicle with their note still parked they fail to get a response from the large property where it was parked outside the main gates,

Montalbano arranges for someone to try and find out about the ownership of the House and vehicle. The property was owned by a local doctor, now deceased and inherited by his son, also a doctor, who works in Bologna who married a woman who fell in love with the property when they visited on honeymoon and decided she wanted to establish a home there, staying in the area often (at a hotel as yet undiscovered) making local friends with whom she frequently socialised and it is assumed where she was now staying and had not yet returned to the home as a consequence.

Salvo then did something for which readers familiar with his approach to policing know him only too well. Late at night he enters the property and to his horror he finds a beautiful young woman face down naked on a bed and dead.

In the previous book he had become friends with an aged disabled former school teacher whose helper disliked him but because she cooked good meals Salvo accepted the invitation to dine once a week plus sometimes attending the weekly concert lasting one hour of a famous violinist who now lived in seclusion of the floor above and because of a kindness played the concerts so the former teacher could enjoy his music from her floor and at the end of the concert she would telephone and give applause. Salvo called on the woman on the morning of a concert, almost ended, and where the woman was supplied with as handwritten note of the pieces being played. Salvo who knew little about music could at least tell it was a first class performance and joined in the applause.

The purpose of his visit was however to use the friendship to try and get him out of the problem of having unintentionally contaminated a crime scene. The woman was to the ring the police commissioner and advise that a crime had been committed at the house, mentioning that a bottle green Twingo car was outside. My God Salvo said when someone rang on behalf of the Police Commissioner and after noting the details he said he would explain the amazing coincidence!

The next story development was when Salvo is advised that the murdered woman’s husband is a doctor working in Bologna and that that his reaction, saying he was too busy at the hospital to immediate come to Sicily was odd and prompted the reader to regard the man as the immediate prime suspect. There was an explanation for his behaviour.

First the husband provided Salvo with the name of a distant relative who lived in the province and who he knew had been in contact. This information was to have significant bearing on what happened in the story. The relative had a son, described once kindly as a simple soul or as we would official say to day with learning difficulties, a problem which I remain personally familiar. It is established that the young man age thirty one and at university trying to take a first degree became besotted with the woman, following her about and when he disappears, going on the run it seemed, coinciding with the woman’s death he becomes the prime suspect by those who take over the investigation after Montalbano and his team are removed from the case when it is established that he had entered the property illegally and discovered the body providing evidence through the crime scene management and new forensic techniques which had been introduced. The young man is then killed by the police saying he was armed when they approached the entrance to the cave where he was hiding and they then arrested the father for complicity.

It take great efforts by Salvo with help from his team to establish that the young man had witnessed the murder from a tree out the bedroom. He had fallen and injured his foot which meant he found it difficult to wear his shoe and he had been holding the shoe when exited from the cave at the behest of the police. In order to save face the head of the flying squad involved had helped manufacture the evidence producing a World War 2 grenade which it was claimed he boy was holding and planting a box with another grenade, a revolver and ammunition at the home of the parent. The man is released from custody to grieve for the death of his innocent only child. Montalbano is reinstated to lead the reopened case with the police man responsible for the cover up retired.

Salvo meets Anna Tropeano an unmarried teacher who had become friends with the dead woman and with who Salvo finds attractive as well as intelligent and defensive about her friend. Salvo is able to get her initially to admit that the dead woman had a lover and subsequently that he is an antique dealer although she did not have his name and address. They became friends and as with his friend Montalbano liked to share information about the case he was working on. In this respect he is indiscreet and unprofessional and uses the media when it suits his purposes in order to achieve justice, condemning those who use the media to promote their personal positions.

Montalbano then meets the husband of the murdered woman who explains that he met her when treating her brother for an injury and who had then moved to live and work in New York. The young woman had been raped by an uncle when she was 15 years who brought her up with her brother after their parents had died. She been the mistress of an industrialist who had provided for her financially but she resented being a kept woman. The Doctor then explained that at the age of 50 he become irreversibly impotent and the marriage had been agreed as a way of preventing allegations being made against him that he was a homosexual, while she would have the security and the freedom to live the life she wanted. They had become close friends having no secrets and he had willingly provided the funds for her to create the home in Sicily. This was to be her life away from Bologna and he had not known the name of her hotel where she stayed while the construction work was undertaken.

The next development is the owner of a garage who remembered seeing the dead woman when she called at his garage on the night of the murder and the man she was with was not that of police killed student shown on TV.

The case break through comes however when the woman living below the recluse professional violinist contacts to say that the dead woman had called at home of her neighbour. The woman had discovered a violin at the property of her husband and knowing of the violinist having heard him performed had been able to get him to at the instrument which he suspect was rare and valuable. He had confirmed this and advised to let him keep the violin safe ( and play) rather than at the unoccupied property until she had arranged its sale to pay off the debt of lover who had become meshed with criminals and loan sharks through his gambling. The Maestro had given her an inexpensive but quality violin to keep in the case at the home fearing the original would be at risk. When Montalbano returned to the house he finds the violin case and the Maestro confirms that the violin inside is mass produced and worthless. The Maestro reveals why he had become a recluse which Salvo fully understands.

Salvo is then able to work out and prove that the lover had returned secretly to Sicily using a false name together with a criminal contact, The man had killed the woman face down because he could not bear her to see him after they had sex. His action had been seen by the student. The criminal contact had collected him and the violin and returned to Bologna to dispose to a private purchaser thus getting twice as much as would have been sold on the open market. The murderer shoots himself when confronted by Salvo.

I had the impression of less reference to food until checking and discovered a dish of fresh anchovies which he dresses in lemon juice, olive oil and freshly ground black pepper. He offers to share a large serving of haddock baked with a sauce of anchovies and vinegar to add to it. He enjoys baby Octopus alla Luciana- fresh tomato sauce with added hot pepper and garlic.

There is a gentle dish to tinnirume which is steamed flower tops of courgettes. Caponata which he has a generous helping is a dish made with sautéed aubergines, tomato, green pepper, garlic, onion celery, black olives, olive oil, anchovies and vinegar and served as an appetizer !!! A neopolitana coffee is made by turn a tin of coffee upside down at the point of boiling allowing the hot water to filter down through the coffee grounds by force of gravity.

I could not understand when he had taken a large cassata on the long journey to visit Franca and the boy he an Livia had intended adopting. This version is in fact a traditional Sicilian sponge cake filled with sweetened ricotta(cheese) candid fruit, raisins, pine nuts, pistachios and jam, usually apricot.

The violin was estimated to have a value of between two and three billion lire which is said to be up to £1 million.