The Age of Doubt

Starred review from April 30, 2012
Near the start of Camilleri’s exquisite 14th mystery featuring Insp. Salvo Montalbano (after 2011’s The Potter’s Field), the self-deprecating, passionately foul-mouthed Sicilian policeman befriends a young woman, Vanna Digiulio, while both are stranded in a traffic jam during a storm that’s washed out the coast road. Vanna’s claim to have been on her way to Vigàta to meet her aunt’s yacht, the Vanna, strikes the inspector as suspicious. When the yacht docks with the disfigured body of a man that the Vanna picked up from a dinghy adrift near the harbor mouth, Montalban informs the boat’s owner, an imperious signora, that she must remain in port while he investigates the man’s murder. His proposal that she stay with her niece elicits the reply, “What niece?” The awkward humanity and everyday sadness of Camilleri’s characters make them instantly sympathetic, while wry commentary on language, food, and local customs lend color. Agent: Agenzia Letteraria Internationale.

June 15, 2012
Has the implacable Inspector Montalbano been thrown off his game by a femme fatale--or worse, a whole clutch of them? When rain forces traffic to a near-standstill, Sicilian Inspector Montalbano, on his drive to work, rescues a young woman whose car is about to be flooded. Identifying herself as Vanna, she professes concern over her wealthy aunt's yacht of the same name. When Montalbano humors her by checking, he finds a naked corpse in the yacht's dinghy, his face bashed in to hinder identification. As for the mysterious Vanna, seems she isn't who she claimed to be. The case proves to be so head-spinning that Montalbano writes himself a letter laying out facts and suppositions and excoriating himself for his slow progress. Relief comes in the person of Lt. Laura Belladonna, a local officer much more astute than his usual sidekicks Fazio and Mimi. But working in close contact with Laura brings up deep feelings Montalbano hadn't bargained for. Montalbano's 14th (The Potter's Field, 2011, etc.) delves more deeply into the hero's interior life than usual. A droll delight for series fans, maybe not so much for new readers.

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May 1, 2012

In this 14th installment (after The Potter's Field) of the internationally popular series set in Vigata, Sicily, Inspector Montalbano once again wrangles with local politics, mysterious strangers, and the ever-present dilemma of what to have for dinner. This time, two yachts, docked in Vigata's port, bring a flirty heiress, undercover operatives, and a whole cast of shady characters to town. An unidentified body found floating in a dinghy complicates the plot. Montalbano is further distracted by the charms of Lieutenant Belladonna of the Harbor Office, whose attentions cause trouble between Montalbano and Livia, his out-of-town girlfriend. VERDICT As with Camilleri's other Montalbano novels, familiar personalities and settings don't fail to delight. The inspector and his colorful crew remain quirky and unpredictable, and the mysteries continue to entertain. This esteemed series is a great example of local color and characters who will appeal to fans of mysteries set in international locales.--Cathy Lantz, Morton Coll. Lib., Cicero, IL

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2012
The fourteenth entry in Camilleri's series starring the irrepressible Sicilian police inspector, Salvo Montalbano, careens through its helter-skelter plot like a pinball making its tortured way from bumper to bumper. Montalbano meets a mousy woman who piques his interest in a yacht at anchor in the bay; a body is found in a dinghy; another body turns up; Montalbano falls hard for the beautiful harbormaster; diamond smuggling enters the picture; Montalbano's nemesis, the commissioner, gets feistyall these plot elements churn away as reader and sleuth struggle to make sense of it all. Finally, for Salvo's sake and ours, the mousy woman, mousy no longer, drops out of the sky to explain what's going on. Throw in a wildly melodramatic, three-hankie finale that seems to belong in another book entirely, and you have the oddest entry in the series by far. Frankly, it isn't a particularly good mystery, but the always charismatic Montalbano makes up for most of the chaos, though even he seems a bit too Buster Keatonish this time.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)