I’ve read a lot of very good books over the past year, so I think I’ll try and start an irregular series of posts on some of the good books I’ve been reading.

Let’s start with Andrea Camilleri‘s Inspector Salvo Montalbano series (translated by Stephen Sartarelli).

The first book was The Shape of Water, and to be honest, I wasn’t 100% certain I was going to continue the series. Inspector Montalbano is–to be blunt–an asshole. However, despite being an asshole, he’s actually a good person who feels very strongly about his work–being a police inspector in Vigata in Sicily and keeping order in the town he loves.

Because the series is set in Sicily, there are mentions of organized crime, though it is more the background to his work, rather than the focus of most of his stories. He has to deal with it, but doing so is a reality in his life, and he does so on his terms and a way that allows him to live with himself and his ethics.

Besides solving crime, the other thing that Montalbano does is eat. He loves food and there are descriptions of not just the means he gets at restaurants, but of the meals his housekeeper leaves for him. The only thing he takes more seriously than food is solving the crimes that happen in Vigata.

These books are translated from Italian, and so the first book especially was a bit of a culture shock–which is why I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep reading the series or not. But I discovered that I was thinking about the story long after I finished the book, and so decided I’d try the second book in the series, The Terra Cotta Dog. That was the book that sucked me into the series.

I realized that Montalbano was a jerk, but he wasn’t capricious or cruel, and I eventually discovered that he actually liked Catarella, despite all his (justified) complaining.

But I fully admit I cannot for the life of my understand why Montalbano and Liva remain together.

If you like mysteries and are looking for a series that’s different from what you normally read, I highly recommend Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano series. Just be aware going on that Salvo is an earthy, foul mouthed, and sometimes obnoxious character. If you can get past that, then I think you’ll love the series as much as I do.

The Shape of Water (1994), The Terra Cotta Dog (1996), The Snack Thief (1996), Voice of the Violin (1997), Excursion to Tindari (2000), The Smell of the Night (2001), Rounding the Mark (2003), The Patience of the Spider (2004), The Paper Moon (2005), August Heat (2005)