The Track of Sand

The Track of Sand (2007) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli

Despite the fact he is quite frequently a right bastard, I am terribly fond of Montalbano.

Salvo awakes from a bad dream, and so wanders out to the beach behind is house to clear his head only to discover a dead horse–a horse that had been badly beaten and had fled its captors in terror only to die (of its wounds? of exhaustion) below Montalbano’s house. Seeing the way the horse was treated enrages Montalbano, and so he calls in some of his men in the hopes they can discover who would do such a horrible thing.

The mystery is, of course, good, but the best parts of these stories are the passages about food (never ever read one of these books while you are hungry) and the dialog.

“Just between us, Mimi, I had half a mind to hang myself, but now you’re here…”
“Ah, well, if that’s your intention–which, incidentally, I approve of, unconditionally–then I’ll leave at once and you can continue.”

Though my favorite bits tend to be with Catarella, who remains completely outrageous.

“Ahh Chief, Chief! Iss Catarella!”
The inspector felt like screwing around.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” he said, altering his voice.
“Iss Catarella, Chief!”
“This is Fire Station Number 2373. If you want to speak with the fire chief, you’ll have to call the fire department, during regular hours, of course.”
“O matre santa! I mussa gotta wrong number! Beckin’ y’ pardon sir!”
He called right back.
“Hallo! Izz ‘iss Fire Station 3723?”
“No Cat. It’s Montalbano. Wait just a second, I’ll look up the fire stations number for you.”

When I first started reading this series, I though they were cruel to Cat, but I eventually came to recognize that they all care for him like a wayward little brother, but like a little brother, sometimes you have to give him a hard time so you don’t kill him.
Rating: 8/10

Published bu Penguin

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