The Patience of the Spider

The Patience of the Spider (2004) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli

The problem with Inspector Montalbano books is that if I pick one up, I tend to read the entire book in an evening.

Which isn’t so good on a week night.

Montalbano is recovering from the events in Rounding the Mark. Liva is staying with him while he recuperates, but he’s suffering nightmares and isn’t sure what to do with himself. He’s called back to work, however, when the entire station is called out for a case that gets more and more confusing as it goes.

Unusually, I figured out what was going on pretty quickly. Not sure why it was so obvious this time, but knowing that early “whodunnit” contributed to my not quite knowing how to feel about this book. It was interesting, as all the Montalbano stories are, but I didn’t find it nearly as compelling as Rounding the Mark, which I thought was excellent, where Montalbano had to come to terms with his actions and morality and how that fit into the police force and larger world.

Also, Montalbano is on a diet, so much of the writing about food seems to be Montalbano’s longing for it. And he’s definitely feeling his age. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but his introspection didn’t seem to be going anywhere as it did in the previous book.

So The Patience of the Spider isn’t a bad book, but it is not one of my favorites. Although you should be able to read this book without having read the previous books, I would not suggest this as a place to start reading.
Rating: 6.5/7

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