Stephen Sartarelli

On a gloomy morning in Vigàta, a call from Fazio rouses Inspector Montalbano from a nightmare. A man called Giugiù Nicotra has been found dead in the skeletal workings of a construction site--a place now entombed by a sea of mud from recent days of rain and floods. Shot in the back, he had fled into a water supply system tunnel. The investigation gets off to a slow start, but all the evidence points to the world of construction and public contracts,...

Witty and entertaining, the Montalbano novels by Andrea Camilleri—a master of the Italian detective story—have become favorites of mystery fans everywhere. In this latest installment, an unidentified corpse is found near Vigàta, a town known for its soil rich with potter's clay. Meanwhile, a woman reports the disappearance of her husband, a Colombian man with Sicilian origins who turns out to be related to a local mobster. Then Inspector

...

"Inspector Montalbano has charmed readers in nineteen popular novels, and now in Montalbano's First Case and Other Stories, Andrea Camilleri has selected twenty-one short stories, written with his trademark wit and humor, that follow Italy's famous detective through highlight cases of his career. From the title story, featuring a young deputy Montalbano newly assigned to Vigata, "Montalbano Says No," in which the inspector makes a late-night call...

"Raffadali, province of Agrigento, 1920s. The Sacco brothers are free men with strong ideas about Socialism and the State. Their lives change radically one morning when their father, Luigi Sacco, receives an anonymous letter from the local Mafia demanding protection money. Luigi tells the police of the extortion letters, but the police don't know what to do: no one in the village has ever dared denounce the Mafia before. From that moment on, the Sacco...

"The New York Times bestselling author of the Inspector Montalbano series brings us back to Vigata in the nineteenth century for a rip-roaring comic novel. 1870s Sicily. Much to the displeasure of Vigata's stubborn populace, the town has just been unified under the Kingdom of Italy. They're now in the hands of a new government they don't understand, and they definitely don't like. Eugenio Bortuzzi has been named Prefect for Vigata, a regional representative...

"Inspector Montalbano investigates two puzzling cases: Within days of each other two women whose only link is being bank employees are kidnapped, drugged, and then released unharmed hours later. However a third wakes is found naked with thirty shallow knife wounds. In an arson case, a shop is burned down and its owner has vanished into thin air"--

When Inspector Montalbano falls under the charms of beautiful gallery owner Marian, his longtime relationship with Livia comes under threat. Meanwhile, he is also troubled by a strange dream as three crimes demand his attention: the assault and robbery of a wealthy merchant's young wife, shady art deals, and a search for arms traffickers that leads him deep into the countryside, where the investigation takes a tragic turn.

When a colleague extends his summer vacation, Inspector Salvo Montalbano is forced to stay in Vigàta and endure the August heat. Montalbano's long-suffering girlfriend, Livia, joins him with a friend - husband and young son in tow - to keep her company during these dog days of summer. But when the boy suddenly disappears into a narrow shaft hidden under the family's beach rental, Montalbano uncovers something terribly sinister. As the inspector spends...

Sicily, April 16 1677. From his deathbed, Charles III's viceroy, Anielo de Guzmán y Carafa, marquis of Castle Rodrigo, names his wife, Doña Eleonora, as his successor. Eleonora de Moura is a highly intelligent and capable woman who immediately applies her political acumen to heal the scarred soul of Palermo, a city afflicted by poverty, misery, and the frequent uprisings they entail.The Marquise implements measures that include lowering the price...

Enduring a grueling summer in nearly deserted 1963 Florence, Inspector Bordelli investigates suspicious alibis related to the death of a wealthy asthma patient, a case that is aided by his young protégé the victim's brother, and a semi-retired petty thief.