The Age of Doubt

The Age of Doubt (2008/2012) Andrea Camilleri

I think one of the things I like about this series is that Andrea Camilleri hasn’t felt the need to rehabilitate Montalbano–he’s still a bastard, and still talks without thinking, but he’s also still good at his job, despite the fact he has to be close to retirement at this point.

A terrible storm has caused all kinds of problems, including washing out part of Inspector Montalbano’s road, and leading to the discovery of a body on a dinghy floating its way out to sea. The discovery of the body alone isn’t the problem–a greater problem is that a bedraggled, flooded-out woman Montalbano takes pity on seems to know more about the ship that found the body than seems reasonable, which leads Montalbano to wonder what is really going on.

The other important thread of the story is Montalbano’s obsession with getting older. He is starting to slow down, and, like Ian Rankin’s John Rebus, has made plenty of enemies of his superiors.

I can’t say this is one of my favorite stories, but Montalbano remains fascinating.
Rating: 7/10

Published by Penguin

• Browse the archives:
  
• Kiss of Frost » »
• « « The Fixer