The Paper Moon (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries) (Paperback)

by Andrea Camilleri (Author), Stephen Sartarelli (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
At the start of Camilleri's wry ninth Insp. Salvo Montalbano procedural (after 2007's The Patience of the Spider), the irascible detective is hoping for a quiet day at his Vigàta office when a visitor, the beguiling Michela Pardo, implores him to help her track down her missing brother, Angelo. Montalbano accompanies Michela to Angelo's apartment, where they find her brother's gunshot-blasted corpse in a compromising position. Montalbano later discovers a possible link between the murder and a series of drug overdoses whose victims include a popular senator. Angelo's affair with a professor's attractive wife offers another avenue of inquiry, but one that gets complicated when the inspector begins to fall in love with the suspect. Humor, much of it provided by Montalbano's eccentric colleagues, leavens the noirish story line, and the solution to the central puzzle is both psychologically plausible and intellectually satisfying. The crisp prose is a pleasure to read, and a last-minute twist a testament to the author's artistry. (Mar.)
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From Booklist
Salvo Montalbano, the beleaguered police inspector in the Sicilian community of Vigata, suffers from a kind of laid-back bipolarism, alternating between a gourmand’s love of sensual pleasures and a melancholic’s inability to make sense of life’s tragedies, large and small. He teeters on the emotional seesaw of those extremes in his latest adventure, which concerns the murder of a pharmaceutical salesman, who is found with his zipper open but with no evidence of recent sexual activity. Montalbano is an intuitive sleuth, but, like Inspector Adamsberg in Fred Vargas’ series set in France, his instincts often lead him astray. So it goes here, as Montalbano vacillates between suspecting a crime of passion involving either the victim’s sister or his former lover (to whom Salvo is disconcertingly attracted) or opting for the more traditional explanation of a Mafia hit (in which the unzipped body was merely a ruse). Solutions are found, of course, but resolution proves elusive as Montalbano muses on our myriad human frailties and how they so often lead to calamity. A must for fans of Donna Leon’s similarly meditative Guido Brunetti. --Bill Ott

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Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143113003
• ISBN-13: 978-0143113003
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #29,221 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Ninth Inspector Montalbano Mystery - La Luna di Carta - The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri, July 12, 2008

By	Andrea Bowhill "acrosscontinents" (England) - See all my reviews

Inspector Montalbano wakes this time not by his inner alarm clock but from one he now sets each night to wake him prompt each morning. His usual slapstick routine of starting the day had fallen by the wayside, irrelevant random thoughts had been plaguing his mind, with a touch of forgetfulness, tiredness and that feeling of age had suddenly creep upon him.

Within ten minutes of being at the station Montalbano is confronted by Signorina. Michela Pardo who cannot locate her brother Angelo, he may have been forty-two but had been missing for some forty eight hours and would always call when away. After a few questions and being won over by Michela's deep, violet lake eyes he was willing to check out her brother's apartment. Montalbano stumbles into a gruesome situation on Angelo's terrace, a man shot at point blank range in the face presented in a rather lewd position.

As things begin to unfold Angelo Pardo the victim was certainly appearing to be no saint. A former doctor struck off the Medical Association ten years earlier after indecent relations with a female patient. Montalbano also had suspicions and doubts about Angelo's job as a medical/pharmaceutical `Informer' and the wealth that seemed to go with it, not only was he lacking a bank account, the money had instead been spent on lavish expensive gifts for his mistress. Then there was Angelo's computer, three files protected by passwords and within secret codes were used! What for? Threatening letters had been found but a strongbox Angelo kept was missing. Montalbano sized up possible motives female entanglements or shady influence in the medical profession with plenty of suspects past and present to go with both, or was it something else? While Montalbano's faithful team cracked codes and follow all other leads including a political one, Montalbano on the other hand was looking for trouble and decided his line of enquiry, presence was best felt with the ladies.

Andrea Camilleri has done wonders with the character Inspector Salvo Montalbano over the years, always in hot water with female trouble, his moods dark, aging but not lacking in sophistication and charm it just melts right off the pages. In this book Montalbano wits become changellened against the leading ladies Michela Pardo and Elena Sclafani but its Montalbano inner thoughts about these two which adds to the comedy. His team follow him as he leadeth them into temptation; always using his unorthodox route to get an answer, meanwhile the description of a chaotic police station always cracks me with a smile. The whole series has a timeless feel, for any thinking of starting to read they clearly deserve to be read from the beginning.

Camilleri has written a wonderful Montalbano Mystery series, this book is the ninth in the series and again he doesn't disappoint. All Montalbano mysteries start in comedy but end in horror or melodrama but its all done with lots of human interest in every plot. This novel I found to start slower than others but it soon picked up pace and again the ending was a gem with its darker twists. What I love about this whole series would be the characterisation and language the usage of dialogue in conversation, directness, it's all been kept real with sharp dry wit and ironic comedy moments, the sly comments on Italian life and culture keeps things amusing and interesting. A big also for me is the passion for great flavoured foods, all the dishes in these books are mouth-watering and endless, described so vividly you can almost taste them.

This is also where I bring in my special thank you to poet Stephen Sartarelli who has translated each book smoothly and clearly managing to keep its humour throughout and for the informative notes given at the back on wording, I would also say notes are always advised to be read before reading the novels.

Another thoroughly enjoyable read in the series.

Andrea Bowhill

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moments well spent with an old friend, May 7, 2008

By	Blue "in Washington" (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano mystery series is one of life's great pleasures. Wonderful, witty writing. Humanity and terrible inhumanity juxtaposed. Complex characters with meat on their bones and, sometimes, evil (or larceny, lust, hate or greed) in their hearts. "The Paper Moon" has all of these winning qualities plus a terrific, multi-layered and serpentine plot.

In "The Paper Moon," The indefatigable Inspector Salvo Montalbano faces a trio of formidable female antagonists while sorting out a murder with erotic trappings, and he doesn't have a solution until the last few pages of the novel. And this, for me, is one of the most enjoyable things about Camilleri's stories--the complexity of their plots rarely gives away the ending before it is actually reached. The setting for the book being Sicily, there is always a whiff of the Mafia in the story's telling, but the author never resorts to the obvious in bringing it to a close.

A perennial bonus look at Sicily and Sicilian society is part and parcel of "The Paper Moon" as well.
This is one of Camilleri's most enjoyable stories to date. Highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ciao Montalbo!, March 15, 2009

By	Marie Callo (virginia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The inspector is ambivalent about his personal life, but he is also a dedicated and intuitive policemen. The scenes of Sicily are well drawn. The translation is a minus; it was written by a Englishman who tried to convey a Sicilian country accent by writing it in phonetic Brooklynese. There are other errors in word usage. Also he seems ignorant of the face that Italian women keep their own last names when married. Otherwise it was a good read.