The Pyramid of Mud

October 16, 2017
The shooting death of Giugiù Nicotra, his body found inside a huge pipe on a muddy construction site, propels Camilleri’s irresistible 22nd Inspector Montalbano mystery set in Vigàta, Sicily (after A Nest of Vipers). Nicotra, the chief accountant for the construction firm Rosapina, lived nearby with his German-born wife, Inge, and an unidentified older man, both of whom are missing. At the victim’s house, Montalbano discovers a bullet casing and other clues to the killing, but it’s outside actions that galvanize his investigation. A reporter attributes Nicotra’s murder to his wife’s adultery and attacks the inspector’s handling of the case, a Rosapina lawyer accuses Nicotra of stealing a gun from his office, a German lawyer says that Inge has returned to Germany, and yet another attorney escorts a man into Montalbano’s office to confess to the crime. Despite feeling his age, Montalbano manages to arrive at a solution to the puzzle with his customary cunning, humor, and fearlessness. Readers will hope he lives forever. Agent: Donatella Barbieri, Agenzia Letteraria Internazionale (Italy).

November 1, 2017
When a construction company's senior accountant is found dead on a work site, Inspector Montalbano can't shake the feeling that the murdered man was trying to send a message.The rain has been so relentless in Montalbano's part of Sicily that construction sites across the area have been closed. But when a body is found at a site near Sicudiana, Montalbano must trudge through the mud to see where this man--who turns out to be Giugiu Nicotra, senior accountant--died. His body is discovered inside a large pipe, part of a new water main, but evidence suggests that he was shot elsewhere before making his way here. But why? As Montalbano and his team search for information on Nicotra, they put together a frustrating picture of work stoppages, phony inspections, and highly inflated prices for materials, an example of a broken system with which Montalbano is all too familiar. Distractions pile up as the team gets closer to finding the motive for murder, but the fishiness is immediately apparent--even the prosecutor, Jacono, admits that things aren't adding up. When Montalbano realizes he's "still at the opening lines of a play they want to put on," he uses it to his advantage, quietly homing in on the guilty party as they start to believe they're free. In this 22nd installment, Camilleri (A Nest of Vipers, 2017, etc.) shows us a more introspective and self-aware inspector, capable of questioning his own abilities, who steadfastly makes it to the bottom of this orchestrated crime with the calmness of a man who has already seen it all. From start to finish, the image of Nicotra in the pipe haunts the inspector, who keeps close to his chest the feeling that "the truth of [his] death is to be found here."The usual humor and strong personalities we expect from Camilleri will be missed by fans in this book, but the more intricate portrait of the detective will make the pages turn anyway.

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August 1, 2017

When storms flood a construction site, a man shot in the back is found in one of the huge pipes that forms part of the site's water supply system. Inspector Montalbano is convinced that the man ran there intentionally, trying to communicate something about his death. Next in the New York Times best-selling series that's won Camilleri the Crime Writers' Association International Dagger Award.

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