The Patience of the Spider

An Inspector Montalbano Mystery by Andrea Camilleri

Inspector Montalbano is recovering from a gunshot wound he sustained at the end of the previous book in the series, Rounding the Mark.

The Inspector was shot in the shoulder by a man involved in trafficking very young, third world children and so he had no hesitation in taking out his own gun and shooting the despicable individual dead.

The kidnap victim had set off for a friend's
house on her scooter but never arrived.

But Montalbano's recovery from the wound is taking some time as he is feeling the weight of his years and becoming more and more introspective.

He is being looked after at his beachfront home in Marinella by his long suffering girlfriend, Livia, and keeps suffering flashbacks to his time in hospital.

However his convalescence is rudely interrupted when Catarella, one of his officers, calls him from the police station and tells him there has been a kidnapping.

The girl was a student at Palermo University and had been out in the evening to a friend’s house to study. She had left her friend to travel home on her scooter early in the evening but had never arrived.

The case just doesn’t add up in Montalbano’s opinion as the family did not have much money, so he wonders why the kidnappers would bother with this girl.

As usual his sharp mind and understanding of human nature helps him get to the truth with plenty of wry humour and a generous helping of Sicilian cuisine along the way.

Buy from

More reading:

Andrea Camilleri profile and full list of Montalbano titles

Home

A Noble Radiance

A Commissario Brunetti novel by Donna Leon

When workmen discover a badly decomposed body in a macabre grave in the gardens of a deserted farmhouse in the Dolomites, Commissario Guido Brunetti is called in to look into the case.

The victim is conclusively identified as the son of an aristocratic Venetian family who has been missing since his abduction two years previously.

Donna Leon exposes the corruption that lies behind
 the stunning beauty of Venice.

Brunetti goes to the family’s villa to try to find out more about the background of the victim and immediately notices a small detail about the gates that had been overlooked by the officers who had investigated the kidnapping at the time.

In this seventh novel to feature Commissario Guido Brunetti, Donna Leon gives us an intriguing mystery that is set against the backdrop of a glamorous, but corrupt Venice. 

Brunetti has to tread carefully because the important family are still grieving for their abducted son, but he is determined to uncover the truth and give the victim the justice he deserves.

Readers are treated to interesting details about Venice and the culinary delights of the city that are enjoyed by the Brunetti family along the way, by the author, who is a long term resident of the city.

But the grim truth uncovered by Brunetti in the closing pages stops this novel from becoming just another predictable crime story that takes place in a beautiful setting.

Buy from:  

Home

The Neapolitan Streak

The first Achille Peroni story by Timothy Holme

Considering that this novel set in Verona deals with kidnapping, violent death and the Red Brigade, it is remarkably good fun to read.

Timothy Holme presents his detective, the Neapolitan Commissario Achille Peroni, in a light-hearted way, but we soon see how his archetypal southern characteristics help him get to the truth in the case he has been given.

We quickly learn that Peroni is handsome and has been dubbed by the media as the Rudolf Valentino of the Italian police. He drives a red Alfa Romeo and definitely has an eye for the ladies, but he is also a fervent believer in the powers of San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples, a city which he misses terribly.

There are times when the Commissario has to fight the Neapolitan within himself to get Peroni to make the right choices. He is not really a brave character but sometimes feels he has to stick his head above the parapet in order to live up to his media reputation.

He enjoys the support and Neapolitan cooking of his sister Assunta, who along with her husband and two children often gives him valuable insights to help him uncover the truth.

Timothy Holme’s first book featuring Commissario Peroni is as entertaining as it is intriguing.

Buy from:

(Image by Gianni Crestani from Pixabay)

Home

Ratking

The first Aurelio Zen novel by Michael Dibdin

Police Commissioner Aurelio Zen is a Venetian living and working in Rome and he constantly feels like an outsider.

But the problem for Michael Dibdin’s fictional detective is not just being away from the city of his birth but because he has been shunted into an administrative role as a result of something that has happened in his past.

In Ratking, the first of Dibdin’s novels to feature Zen, the Commissioner is brought out of the shadows and sent to Perugia to investigate the kidnapping of a rich businessman. Political pressure has been brought to bear on the Polizia dello Stato to achieve some progress in the case and they are forced to put Zen back into active service because there is literally no one else to send.

Dibdin cleverly reveals the character of his detective as the reader sees the techniques he employs to learn about the complex personalities of the family of the kidnapped businessman.

Kidnapping cases were Zen’s speciality and he proves more than a match for the various people who try to thwart him in his work.

We also learn more about the secret in his past which has caused him to be sidelined by his superiors.

Zen finds Perugia, the main city of Umbria, to be a strange and dangerous place, but he sticks to his task of uncovering the truth and allowing justice to prevail. By the end of the book we find out why his career was abruptly halted. But it comes as no surprise to find that he was blameless in the affair because he has already earned our respect and we find ourselves looking forward to seeing him in action again.

Buy from:

Home