The wings of the Sphinx by Andrea Camilleri is the 11th 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.
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