August Heat: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery [Mass Market Paperback]

Andrea Camilleri (Author), Stephen Sartarelli (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 24, 2009

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, in pursuit of the child, uncovers something terribly sinister. As the inspector spends the summer trying to solve this perplexing case, Livia refuses to answer his calls-and Montalbano is left to take a plunge that will affect the rest of his life. Fans of the Sicilian inspector as well as readers new to this increasingly popular series will enjoy following the melancholy but unflinchingly moral Montalbano as he undertakes one of the most shocking investigations of his career.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Camilleri’s alternately brooding and life-loving Sicilian police inspector Salvo Montalbano may be the most agonizingly human lead character in the mystery genre. The inspector’s all-too-recognizable shortcomings, from lethargy to lust, are on view in this latest episode in which a summer rental—procured by Salvo for friends of his girlfriend, Livia—becomes a kind of Italian Amityville horror. If an insect infestation isn’t enough to turn the holiday into a fiasco, the body found in a concealed basement apartment does the trick nicely, leaving Montalbano on the outs with Livia and forced to contend with a six-year-old murder. As the inspector endures the August heat (often by sitting in his office in his underwear), he faces an even more formidable obstacle: his overwhelming attraction to the victim’s stunning twin sister. Montalbano’s various weaknesses lead directly to the troubling finale, leaving him forced to, yes, strip off his clothes one more time and dive into the sea, hoping to swim away his regrets. Combine the movies Body Heat and The Seven-Year Itch, blending the noir of the former with the farce of the latter, and you have something like this beguiling tragicomedy. --Bill Ott

Review

''The joys of August Heat arise less from the central plot than from its margins: Montalbano's never-flagging fondness for food, his ruminations on aging, and his commentaries on Italian society.'' --Washington Post

''Camilleri's tenth mystery to feature [Inspector] Montalbano (after 2008's Paper Moon) cleverly balances a compelling story line with engaging characters.'' --Publishers Weekly

''Despite its noirish undertones, the perfect beach read for those lucky enough to have found suitable accommodations.'' --Kirkus Reviews --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 278 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Original edition (February 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143114050
• ISBN-13: 978-0143114055
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #343,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Andrea Camilleri is the author of the spectacularly successful Montalbano mystery series and many other novels set in nineteenth-century Sicily. His Montalbano novels have been made into an Italian TV series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars downstairs house, February 25, 2009

By 

Alvaro Lewis "jwatson5" (Redwood City, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: August Heat: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

This Camilleri mystery may not be the place to start for those just arriving on the scene because the investigation is a darker one, involving a murdered adolescent, and because Montalbano himself makes some decisions that serial readers will consider surprising but newer readers may not appreciate as shockingly anomalous. Camilleri does not disappoint. We readers continue our education in Sicilian manners and mannerisms, this time with an emphasis on building codes and almost unendurable summer heat. Montalbano enjoys a couple of good meals, defies bureaucracy, drinks whisky, repeatedly swims into the ever more polluted sea, and, in spite of his best intentions, continues to flounder in his romantic life with long-time love Livia. The murder case itself is unraveled precipitously close to the conclusion of the book but there is further excitement at the end here since the ramifications of Inspector Montalbano's behavior, only in part attributable to his aging, must certainly be dealt with in the next account of this wholly pleasing series.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Sad, Implacable Aging of a Good Author, March 7, 2009

By 

David Island "Excalibur" (San Rafael, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: August Heat: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

A strange little book is this "August Heat," clearly not Camilleri's best work, sorry to say. The plot is simple and contrived. The first 1/4 of the book is hilariously funny. The last 3/4 of the book almost completely lacks humor, except for a line or two here and there. In fact, the overall tale is quite dark and rather unappealing. The finale is disappointing, obvious, and transparent -- to the point of ridiculousness. The crimes and their tortured solutions are, simply put, uninteresting and unremarkable. The buried "lower apartment," so central to this story, was in fact almost impossible to picture clearly in your mind - you know, like from a blueprint perspective. I just didn't "get it."

Throughout the story, Inspector Montalbano sinks deeper into self-absorption, self-pity and his boring neurotic fixation on his own aging, so thematically present in the last 2 or 3 novels in this series. Montalbano has lost, unfortunately - at least for me - a lot of the appeal he once enjoyed as a man, as an inspector, as a fictional "flawed-but-good-guy-hero."

Adrianna, the main female character in this book is transparent and strangely "evil" in her own eerie way. Nothing she does or says comes across as honest, believable or trustworthy. From start to finish, she is wholly unlikable and unpleasant. She's no Livia!

I miss the steady, clear-headed, and believably emotional presence of Livia, Montalbano's apparently now-estranged girl friend/lover. Her voice of reason and ordinariness is sadly missing in this little story. Montalbano is not the same man without her. How many times do we have to read about his taking a long shower? 20? Kind of tiresome, no? And his ocean swims, that used to refresh him (and us), now only underscore his pathetic obsession about his lot in life. Honestly, I'm tired of his feeling so bloody sorry for himself. It's a turn off. And, once again in the middle of the novel, when the story line needs a lift, Camilleri resorts to the strange letter, summarizing the evidence, that Montalbano writes to himself, something he has done in at least two of the books now, an action that I think is totally out-of-character for him.

Once again, however, one of the best parts of the book is its strict adherence to the clear personalities of many recurring, interesting players. I particularly adore Catarella, the ditzy receptionist/office manager, who is usually called "Cat." The translation is first rate, as always. The dialogue, in addition to the laugh-out-loud humor in the first pages, is truly well-done. The notes at the book's end are, as always, very interesting.

"August Heat" is a fast and mostly enjoyable read, if only to bring you back into contact with some familiar, interesting, well-drawn fictional friends. It's a quick, almost comic-book-like read, worthy of 3 stars. You have done much better, Mr. Camilleri! But, I wonder, is it perhaps Camilleri the author himself, rather than fictional 55 year-old Montalbano, who is aging? After all, in September he will be 84. Is it time to bring this successful, once-fun series to an end? Perhaps.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some like it hot, August 20, 2009

By 

Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: August Heat: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

But not Inspector Montalbano. It is August in Sicily and Salvo Montalbano is not only wilting under the hot summer son but he's also beginning to get the `middle-aged' blues. To make matters worse, his girl friend Livia has decided to visit. That wouldn't be so bad except she has invited another family to accompany them and has instructed Montalbano to do the impossible: rent a summer beach house on the Sicilian coast without any prior notice. He manages, grudgingly, to find a beach house but when the guests arrive their young son disappears within steps of the beach house. What Montalbano uncovers during his search for the child and his subsequent investigation into that discovery forms the plot for Andrea Camilleri's "August Heat".

August Heat is the tenth in a series of Inspector Montalbano stories. Set in the fictional town of Vigata, Sicily, the series for me has always been marked by the larger-than life personality of Inspector Montalbano. Montalbano is a very appealing character. He is a Sicilian with a temper. He doesn't suffer fools gladly even when those fools happen to be authority figures. He has an enormous appetite for good food and each book contains reference to his never ending search for a tasty, well-prepared dish. His relationship with his long-time, long-distance lover, Livia, also plays a recurring role in the series and in "August Heat", the tension between them over the lost boy at the beach house seems to put their relationship in jeopardy.

As a fan of the series I have to admit being a bit disappointed by August Heat. Montalbano's ruminations on his own mortality marked a different tone from the earlier volumes and seemed to be a bit of a drag not only on Montalbano but also on this reader. That said, there is still a lot to like in August Heat. I enjoyed the plot and continue to enjoy Montalbano's relationship with his recurring cast of characters. I also love the picture he paints of life in Sicily. I realize this is a work of fiction but as I've read through the books in the series I can't help but feel as if I am getting a little taste of Sicily in each volume. My enjoyment of the book, therefore, probably stems as much from my enjoyment of the series as a whole. If this were the first Montalbano book I'd read I may not have rushed out to buy a half dozen more in the series. But it remained a very pleasant book to read while suffering through summer heat in a location far from Sicily.

The translation by Stephen Sartarelli should also be mentioned. Apparently much of the dialogue in the original is very idiomatic and reflects much of the slang common to Sicily. Sartarelli has done a very good job keeping much of the dialogue quirky enough in English to convey some of the changes in dialect set out in the original. The Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko once said that "Translation is like a woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful." I get the feeling Sartarelli, by using idiomatic English slang (a Brooklyn accent or so it seems) for one character has gone for beauty and as a result the prose is very fluid and does not have the feel of a translation.

As far as summer reading is concerned, this is a perfectly enjoyable book even if it isn't Camilleri's best. L. Fleisig