August Heat by Andrea Camilleri, Mr Stephen Sartarelli

The novels of Andrea Camilleri breathe out the sense of place, the sense of humor, and the sense of despair that fills the air of Sicily. --Donna Leon When a colleague extends his summer vacation, Inspector Salvo Montalbano is forced to stay in Vigta and endure the August heat. Montalbano's long-suffering girlfriend, Livia, joins him with a friend--husband and young son in tow--to keep her company during these dog days of summer. But when the boy suddenly disappears into a narrow shaft hidden under the family's beach rental, Montalbano, in pursuit of the child, uncovers something terribly sinister. As the inspector spends the summer trying to solve this perplexing case, Livia refuses to answer his calls-and Montalbano is left to take a plunge that will affect the rest of his life. Fans of the Sicilian inspector as well as readers new to the popular series will enjoy following the melancholy but unflinchingly moral Montalbano as he undertakes one of the most shocking investigations of his career. Editorial Reviews Praise for Andrea Camilleri and the Montalbano Series Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano mysteries might sell like hotcakes in Europe, but these world-weary crime stories were unknown here until the oversight was corrected (in Stephen Sartarelli's salty translation) by the welcome publication of The Shape of Water...This savagely funny police procedural...prove[s] that sardonic laughter is a sound that translates ever so smoothly into English.--The New York Times Book Review Hailing from the land of Umberto Eco and La Cosa Nostra, Montalbano can discuss a pointy-headed book like Western Attitudes Toward Death as unflinchingly as he can pore over crime-scene snuff photos. He throws together an extemporaneous lunch of shrimp with lemon and oil as gracefully as he dodges advances from attractive women.--Los Angeles Times [Camilleri's mysteries] offer quirky characters, crisp dialogue, bright storytelling--and Salvo Montalbano, one of the most engaging protagonists in detective fiction...Montalbano is a delightful creation, an honest man on Siciliy's mean streets.--USA Today Camilleri is as crafty and charming a writer as his protagonist is an investigator.--The Washington Post Book World Like Mike Hammer or Sam Spade, Montalbano is the kind of guy who can't stay out of trouble...Still, deftly and lovingly translated by Stephen Sartarelli, Camilleri makes it abundantly clear that under the gruff, sardonic exterior our inspector has a heart of gold, and that any outburst, fumbles, or threats are made only in the name of pursuing truth.--The Nation Camilleri can do a character's whole backstory in half a paragraph.--The New Yorker Subtle, sardonic, and molto simpatico: Montalbano is the Latin re-creation of Philip Marlowe, working in a place that manages to be both more and less civilized than chandler' Los Angeles.--Kirkus Reviews (starred) - From the Publisher ...the joys of August Heat arise less from the central plot than from its margins: Montalbano's never-flagging fondness for food, his ruminations on aging and his commentaries on Italian society...Often, the investigation serves as a kind of scaffolding from which to hang skit-length romps...But the occasional absurdity doesn't detract from the novel's myriad pleasures. -The Washington Post - Art Taylor Camilleri's 10th mystery to feature Sicilian Insp. Salvo Montalbano (after 2008's Paper Moon) cleverly balances a compelling story line with engaging characters. Urged by his girlfriend, Livia, to find a summer rental for a friend of hers in Vigta, Montalbano ends up selecting a house with a tainted past. The man who built the house died in a fall soon after its construction, and his 20-year-old stepson, Ralf Gudrun, vanished. After the young son of Livia's friend disappears, Montalbano finds the missing boy, essentially unharmed, but in the process stumbles upon a corpse, later identified as that of an attractive 16-year-old girl who disappeared six years earlier. Suspects include a real estate developer with unhealthy sexual appetites as well as the missing Gudrun. While the solution is less complicated than, say, those Peter Lovesey provides for his similar series sleuth, Peter Diamond, the humor and humanity of Montalbano make him an equally winning lead character. (Mar.)Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. - Publishers Weekly The victim in Inspector Salvo Montalbano's tenth case (The Paper Moon, 2008, etc.) has been waiting six years in a chest in an illegally constructed apartment. It's not easy to find a Sicilian beach house for rent during August. So when his girlfriend Livia, denied a vacation with the inspector by his colleague's change of summer plans, insists that he find a rental for her friend Laura, Montalbano's proud of his discovery, until the plagues begin: cockroaches, mice, spiders, floods. Finally Laura's toddler disappears-into a pit, it turns out, that leads to a secret ground-floor apartment constructed and buried in defiance of the building code. It's the exact duplicate of Laura's apartment, except for the corpse in the chest. The victim, 16-year-old Caterina Morreale, was obviously assaulted and killed by someone who had access to the apartment on the day it was hidden from view to await a government amnesty on illegal construction. Was the killer well-connected contractor Michele Spitaleri, who liked his girls young? Foreman Angelino Dipasquale? Mason Gaspare Micciche? Watchman Filiberto Attanasio, a habitual offender? Or Ralf Speciale, late stepson of the German businessman for whom the apartment was built? With help from a most unusual young woman, Montalbano battles the usual corruption, incompetence and indifference, compounded this time by heat that repeatedly moves him to strip to his underwear. He comes up with a solution as satisfying as it is unsurprising. Despite its noirish undertones, the perfect beach read for those lucky enough to have found suitable accommodations. - Kirkus Reviews While coastal Italy is awash in sweltering heat, Sicilian Police Inspector Salvo Montalbano is distracted by a gruesome discovery made in a friend's beach villa. The puzzling death of a young girl years earlier becomes his obsession while he survives the heat by indulging in his fondness for the local cuisine, cool swims, and scathing commentaries on Italian society. Sartarelli's translation captures the region's quaint idioms and slang without losing clarity or humor. Grover Gardner performs the role of the melancholy yet driven Montalbano with artistry, balancing cantankerousness with geniality. However, his baffling infusion of an American gangsta accent for police force underlings and construction laborers grates a bit. Fans of Camilleri's nine other mysteries will miss the common-sense injections of Montalbano's girlfriend. A.W. AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine - MARCH 2011 - AudioFile