The Paper Moon

The Paper Moon (2005/2008) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli

The story opens with a woman–concerned that she has not heard from her brother–coming to report him missing. It hasn’t been long enough to declare him officially missing, but she convinces Montalbano to come with her, to see what signs are at his apartment.

“Aahh, Chief, Chief!”
“What is it Cat?”
“There’s some lady waiting for you.”
“For me?”
“She din’t say it was f’you poissonally in poisson, she just said she wants to talk to somebody from the police”
So why couldn’t she talk to you?”
“Chief, she said she wanted a talk to somebody superior to me.”

Poor Catarella.

Besides the sister, there is another woman in the story–a young woman who was the man’s mistress. The sister hates the mistress with a frightening intensity, which really doesn’t help her case very much, but a mourning woman is giving some slack.

This was a fascinating story, in so many levels. The intensity of the relationship between the siblings, and little by little the details that leak out about the brother. To be honest, by the end of the story, I wasn’t at all sorry he was dead, but I had little sympathy for her murderer either.

As with all these books, food plays a major part in the story.

(H)e ate so much that as h was eating he felt embarrassed, ashamed, but couldn’t help himself.

That single sentence sums up Montalbano’s relationship with food. And I suppose that of the vices a Sicilian cop could have, gluttony is the least of them.

Especially since he remains fed up with the corruption.

“(I)n our neck of the woods, and not only our neck of the woods, politics in the art of burying one’s adversary in shit.”
“What’s politics got to do with me?”
“A lot, even if you don’t realize it. In a case like this, so you know what your rile is?”
“No. What’s my role.”
“You supply the shit.”

Again I remain glad that I have nothing to do with Italian politics or the Italian bureaucracy.

But the mystery in this story was very good. The more you learn about all the people centrally involved in the case, the more you come to dislike all of them, and aren’t sure how justice can every be served.
Rating: 8.5/10

Published by Penguin

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