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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another enjoyable read by Camilleri, January 2, 2004
This review is from: Voice of the Violin (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries) (Hardcover)
When the police car of Inspector Montalbano hits a small car parked at an apparently deserted country home, the inspector has a gut feeling that something is wrong. He finds the body of a beautiful woman, strangled in her bedroom. After a short while it turns out that the woman has numerous acquaintances in the area and that there are a fair number of suspects. The investigation is not made any easier by the fact that Montalbano's superiors are not exactly supporting him, even though his own team is squarely behind him. A combination of good policework and flashes of brilliance in the end solves the crime. In the meantime Montalbano also has to sort out the mess that he is making of his private life. And that is the nice thing about this series: it is the combination of police work and private hassles, that make Montalbano into more than your average, typical policeman-from-a-novel, but rather a real character with his good and his bad sides.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If You Like Donna Leon, Try Andrea Camilleri, October 19, 2005
As someone who only reads a few mystery novels a year, I was overwhelmed to discover both Andrea Camilleri and Donna Leon at about the same time. Camilleri's Inspector Salvo Montalbano stories and Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti novels are so good that I wanted to read them all and was delighted to find that both authors have written at least a dozen books each. Only five or six of Camilleri's have been translated into English from the original Italian so far, but more are on the way. And many of Leon's are out of print in the U.S., but perhaps that will change in the near future.
These are compelling mysteries that draw you right in and keep you hooked right up to the satisfying, if not always happy, conclusions. But that almost goes without saying. What keeps you coming back for more are the characters and the extras, in this case, the backdrops of Sicily and Venice.
Stephen Sartarelli's translations of the Camilleri books are marvelous. It isn't hard to translate a book, but it is difficult to do well. He strikes the perfect balance of translating most things, but turning to explanation when translating would destroy the mood. There are a few pages of explanations at the end of each book, describing pastas and exchange rates and cultural references. For instance, he translates education-impaired cop Catarella's rough speech into something Brooklyn-esque, but he explains Boghonghi the Dwarf, apparently a famous character to most Italians, but not to Americans. (Example of a bad translation -- I remember seeing a dubbed version of the French movie A Man and a Woman that completely destroyed the romantic mood when they replaced the Edith Piaf song playing on the car radio in the original version with a dubbed ragtime tune.)
I can't say which series is better, I tend to think that whichever I am reading at the moment is my favorite.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
VOICE OF THE VIOLIN - 'Notes' whodunit, December 12, 2003
This review is from: Voice of the Violin (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries) (Hardcover)
This is a murder mystery set in Sicily, with the aroma of Italian pastries and pasta, replete with questionable jurisprudence and misguided police procedures - and husbands, wives and other lovers. Written in Italian and translated into English, series character Inspector Salvo Montalbano literally crashes into a murder crime scene while on his way to a funeral. This subtle humor continues as Montalbano must find a way to "out" the fact that a young, naked and dead woman is locked inside the quieted cottage. The suspects include the husband of the deceased; a girlfriend; an out-of-town lover; and a quirky neighborhood admirer and sometimes stalker. Leaving no stone unturned, even a questionable judge and some trigger-happy cops are fair game for Montalbano's investigation. While solving this crime, Montalbano has girlfriend problems of his own to mend, on top of his infatuation with the girlfriend of the deceased. Sometimes Montalbano's life is even too much for Montalbano. These times usually call for a good Italian meal and an unplugged telephone. VOICE OF THE VIOLIN is irreverent humor, with an underlining belief that "the end justifies the means," as in half-truths, news leaks and 'anonymous' police tips. But it is the complexity of Montalbano, and the complexity of the whodunit storyline, along with the wonderful setting, that make this a thoughtful, enjoyable, fun and worthwhile read.
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