Customer Reviews

The Track of Sand (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Inspector Montalbano is now fifty-six - and not liking it. His appetite is off. He actually skips lunch more than once! He's not seeing as well and fears he may need glasses. He's even getting forgetful! At least he's still got it as a lover, but sex leaves him feeling used.

And the case he has to solve with his blurring vision and beleaguered brain is peculiarly confusing.

One morning Montalbano finds the carcass of a horse in front of his house. It's been horribly beaten to death. The rage the inspector feels does not bode well for the perpetrators.

His investigation of the case has to be unofficial, for reasons I'll let you discover. It's a weirdly meandering investigation, too, with red herrings as big as whales, serious distractions presented by all too attractive women - and the Mafia breathing heavy in the background.

As always, the charm of the story is the inspector's eccentric interactions with his staff and associates. Montalbano seems incapable of having a conversation without yelling, stewing, interrupting, lying or longing to kill the other person. Andrea Camilleri's comic sense is unfailingly deft and utterly original.

If you've already read several Montalbano mysteries, The Track of Sand will be a treat. But if you're new to the series, I'd recommend starting at the beginning and going for total immersion.

Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series is so very good that I just sit around and look at the copy for a while before beginning to read, because I know in a couple of hours it will be gone and I'll want another one!

Montalbano is a wonderful character and as with all great characters you feel you know him and can't wait to see what he's up to next. The setting, Sicily, is a fascinating character in itself, and takes you into a world that few Americans ever experience.

Start with the first one and work your way through the series. You won't regret it. A great read for lovers of detective fiction.

Here is one of author Andrea Camilleri's best tales yet in the wonderful Inspector Montalbano series. In this serpentine story of murder, passion and cuisine, there is great wit, wonderful characters, a highly original plot and clever homages to Swedish counterparts Per Wahlo and Hankell, Monty Python, and even French impressionist Edouard Manet, among others. A general context is provided, as usual, by ever unique Sicily and Sicilians. Salvo Montalbano's ongoing ruminations about the aggravations of aging provide a secondary theme that helps drive the story line.

"The Track of Sand" starts with the brutal killing of a horse near Inspector Montalbano's beach house. The body of the animal quickly disappears and Montalbano's house is ransacked. The apparent owner of the horse--a stunningly beautiful Roman equestrian--shows up at the Vigata police station to report the animal missing, thus beginning a complicated relationship with the Inspector. The murkiness of the crime increases, but seems to be linked to a pending court case that involves Montalbano as a witness. As the investigation picks up steam, a bevy of aristocrats, local mafiosi and a human murder enter the picture. Meanwhile, Montalbano's personal life is complicated by a surfeit of beautiful and willing women, fading eyesight and the ever-important pursuit of a decent meal. Even by Camilleri standards, "Track.." has major twists and turns, but it is always plausible, intelligent and highly entertaining. The ending is as fresh and satisfying as one of Montalbano's daily three-course meals.

For anyone who hasn't read any of the Montalbano series, be forewarned that it is entirely addictive. Expect to stick with "The Track of Sand" from cover to cover in one sitting. it's that good.

Strange dreams and perfect intuition and logic are the keys to solving a mystery in this Inspector Montalbano novel. It seems that even when he is asleep he can proceed with an investigation with dispatch.

He awakens one day and looks out of his beach house to see a bludgeoned horse lying in the sand. When his men arrive after his call to investigate, the horse has disappeared. In short order, Rachele, an equestrian champion rider, and Saverio Lo Duca, one of the richest men in Sicily, each report a missing horse. Which one was the horse the inspector sighted?

In consultation with Fazio, a colleague, Montalbano learns of a clandestine horse racing scheme operated by the mafia. Meanwhile, several burglary attempts take place at the inspector's house, as well as an arson attempt. What, if any, is the connection to the investigation? With his customary unorthodox methodology, the inspector proceeds to unravel all the possibilities.

With humor and charm, the author writes a procedural of a different kind: one which is full of good food, good-looking women and lots of fun. Eat, drink and read hearty.

Recommended.

Another winning read from author Camilleri and the very fine translator, Stephen Sartarelli. Inspector Montalbano's many fans will be happy to find this latest book in the series, and then as usual, be impatient for the next one. There are so many things that make these books enjoyable reading, not the least being the detailed meals cooked up by Montalbano's housekeeper and his favorite restaurants. It helps to have some wine and cheese handy to snack on while you're reading.

Camilleri is 91 or 92, I forget which, but this may have been his best Montalbano book yet. I don't understand how he does it (I'm sure the translator has much to do with it), but I enjoyed every page of this book. The characters are as sharp as ever, and the plotting was better than some of the earlier books in the series. This was the best since Snack Thief, IMO, and maybe better than that one. Now, if only Camilleri can get Montalbano to dump Livia entirely before he leaves us, I would call this a completely satisfying series of books. If you start with the first one, you will devour them all, I promise. Mangia!

This book was recommended per my previous selection of mysteries by foreign authors. The author has published several books. Other reviewers have summarized the story line and most praised it highly.

I found it to be a combination of a slapstick comedy and a "B" movie, neither of which would I choose as sources of entertainment. The story was "thin" at best with many circumstances varying between too unrealistic and childish.

#12 Inspector Montalbano mystery set in Sicily. What are the odds that you would look out your window one morning and see a dead horse lying on the beach? This is how Salvo Montalbano's day begins, and things continue to stay weird for several days. By the time he follows the horse's tracks and locates where he was killed--a victim of a brutal beating--the corpse has disappeared. When a beautiful woman comes into the police station to report her horse missing, things get even weirder, and as usual the case intersects with another and gets all muddled up before the lightbulb goes off over Montalbano's head.

Meanwhile, he deals with people breaking into his home, women trouble, consumes much yummy food, has his share of grumpy and melancholy thoughts, buffaloes his superiors and baffles his staff, but eventually gets to where he's going in the end, solving both cases--once he starts following the right track.

Enjoyable visit to Montelusa and surrounding area with my favorite Italian curmudgeon, as usual and expected. Keep them coming, Mr. Camilleri!

This book is one of my favorites. At first I thought the book was about a horse but I was patient and was rewarded.

This is my twelfth Montalbano and I get to like Salvo more and more with each book. This is a man who refuses to give into life in the twenty-first century. He hates to carry his cell phone, computers are a total mystery to him and he respects the nobility of life even though most people think of him as 'old fashioned'. This book is a look into the author more that anything else. Camilleri is 85 and has lived under the Kingdom of Italy, Mussolini's Fascists, the Christian Democrats, the terror of the Red Brigade and now Berlusconi. True to his roots, Camilleri is still a man of the people (whether he votes communist or socialist). He looks at what is happening to Italy with a very callused eye and find it more than wanting.

As in all his novels, Camilleri has made Berlusconi the ultimate cynic and survivor, who knows that every one is only out to get what they can. Salvo on the other hand has built a little world of his own, with men around him who understand who he is and work around his 'quaint' ideas of justice.

This book starts out with Salvo finding a dead horse on the beach in front of his house. By the time he and his men follow the horse-prints back to where the horse was beaten and come back to his house to call in the crime scene team, both the horse and most of the evidence has disappeared. With the help of his rich Swedish friend Ingrid and her friend Rachelle (who happens to own the horse) we are introduce to the world of the wealthy Italians. Bored with all they have, they have created their own equestrian racing circuit. Only those in the know (finger to the nose), and with the right credentials (read old money and titles) are invited to these movable soirees.

Camilleri gets to look down his nose at those who look down their noses at everyone (and everything) else. They have multiple hyphenated names and still use the titles their families have had since the thirteenth century though in the Republic of Italy they are supposed to be extinct. All they are looking for is a free meal and free liquor and drugs since so many of them are broke. They complain about how the country is going to the 'mongrels' who 'wash up on our shores', but serve no creditable purpose in this world themselves.

Having fallen into their orbit and a one-night affair with Rachelle, Salvo realizes that he's really no better than the people he has found dissipate and distasteful. At fifty-six he is aghast that he has let himself 'cheat' on Livia without any thought of the consequences (mostly to himself). He is the true 'errant' knight who has no windmills to tilt at but in this case does have a damsel to save.

The good news is that there are currently seventeen Montalbano books in Italian so therefore five more to be translated.

Zeb Kantrowitz