The Track of Sand (2010)

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“You either love Andrea Camilleri or you haven’t read him yet. Each novel in this wholly addictive, entirely magical series, set in Sicily and starring a detective unlike any other in crime fiction, blasts the brain like a shot of pure oxygen. Aglow with local color, packed with flint-dry wit, as fresh and clean as Mediterranean seafood — altogether transporting. Long live Camilleri, and long live Montalbano.” A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window Inspector Salvatore Montalbano wakes from strange dreams to find a gruesomely bludgeoned horse carcass in front of his seaside home. When his men came to investigate, the carcass has disappeared, leaving only a trail in the sand. Then his home is ransacked and the inspector is certain that the crimes are linked. As he negotiates both the glittering underworld of horseracing and the Mafia’s connection to it, Montalbano is aided by his illiterate housekeeper, Adelina, and a Proustian memory of linguate fritte . Longtime fans and new readers alike will be charmed by Montalbano’s blend of unorthodox methods, melancholy self-reflection, and love of good food. ** From Publishers Weekly At the start of bestseller Camilleri's robust 12th Inspector Montalbano mystery (after 2009's The Wings of the Sphinx), the Sicilian inspector looks out his window and sees the carcass of a horse on the beach. The animal, he discovers, has been bludgeoned to death. As he turns his back to phone in the crime, the horse vanishes, leaving a track in the sand. Was the horse slaughtered for its meat by illegal immigrants? Is someone trying to send a message to the owner? Or is the Mafia edging its way into the racing industry? The repeated vandalizing of Montalbano's home and a Mafia thug's murder complicate the investigation. The street-smart inspector takes a broadly comic trip to the racetrack in an effort to link all these events together. While convoluted plotting and byzantine complexities distract, Montalbano uses some creative chicanery and tweaking of the law to provide a dramatic and satisfying conclusion. (Nov.) (c) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Life-loving, pasta-inhaling Inspector Salvo Montalbano, the embattled Sicilian policeman, has much to worry about, from his growing bald spot to his ever-tottering relationship with the demanding Livia to the steadily more vicious crime he must confront, but even he is surprised to see a dead horse on the sand when he looks out his window one morning (admittedly, he had been dreaming about horses, though the horse he was riding was a woman). From this peculiar equine beginning, Montalbano soon finds himself embroiled in a puzzling case that involves horse stealing, race fixing, and murder. Along the way, of course, there is plenty of time for lunch, though Montalbano’s ability to concentrate on his food is impeded by two women who seem more than willing to fill the gap created by Livia’s absence. This series is distinguished by Camilleri’s remarkable feel for tragicomedy, expertly mixing light and dark in the course of producing novels that are both comforting and disturbing. Here he leans a bit more toward the light side, but fans won’t mind a little extra comfort one bit. --Bill Ott