The Track of Sand (2007/2010) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This is another story that is not a particular favorite. Montalbano and Livia are still fighting (of course), but the book opens with a really horrible scene, the discovery of a dead horse by Montalbano. A horse that has been beaten to death. This […]
August Heat (2006/2009) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This is not my favorite Montalbano story. This is the book where the relationship between Montalbano and Livia starts to fall apart. (It continues to fall apart for the rest of the series so far.) We also see Montalbano behaving in ways he’d avoided in the […]
The Wings of the Sphinx (2006/2009) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli Somehow, I managed to read this book and the one that comes before it out of order. Which was unusually problematic because events in the previous book–events involving Montalbano and Livia–had a tremendous influence upon events in this book. I remembered what they […]
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, […]
The Patience of the Spider (2004/2007) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This book picks up right after the events of Rounding the Mark. Monalbano has been on leave, recovering from being shot in the shoulder. Livia has come down to stay with him during his recover, so they get to argue in person, instead […]
Rounding the Mark (2003/2006) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli It finally happened. The corruption of the Italian government and system has finally gotten to Montalbano, and he has decided he no longer wants to work in such a system. But his morning swim changes everything, when he (literally) runs into a corpse. The first […]
The Smell of the Night (2001/2005) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli Ah, Chief! Chief! This is the book where Catarella truly takes on the personality he has for the rest of the series. It always amuses me how so much of what he says ends up sounding like gibberish. And it’s all good and […]
Excursion to Tindari (2000/2005) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli All murder mysteries are, at their heart, depressing. They tell the tale of how someone decided that the life of another human was disposable, and then act to snuff out that life. But the heart of this story feels even more depressing, somehow. Despite the […]
Voice of the Violin (1997/2003) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This story is a turning point for Catarella. “(I)n a few days, some absolutely up-to-date computer will be arriving… He wanted each of us to give him the name of an officer we thought had a special knack for computer science. Which I did.” […]
Hard Spell (2011) Justin Gustainis (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation) Stan Markowski is a detective in Scranton’s Supernatural Crimes Investigation Unit. He works the night shift and works the cases that deal with supernaturals. My name’s Markowski. I carry a badge. Also a crucifix, some wooden stakes, a big vial of holy water, and a […]
Known Devil (2014) Justin Gustainis Stan Markowski is a Sergeant in the Occult Crimes Unit of the Scranton Police. His daughter and his partner are both vampires, but he doesn’t hold that against them. (He can’t, really, since it’s his fault they’re vampires.) It was believed that only goblins were affected by intoxicating substances (in […]
Evil Dark (2012) Justin Gustainis Stan Markowski is still on the supe squad in Scranton, still looking into crime committed by and/or against supernatural creatures, and this time a series of murders looks to be tied together, but the answer to cui bono is nowhere to be found. Like the first book, dark in the […]
The Snack Thief (1996/2003) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli This is the third Inspector Montalbano book. In the same morning, there is a shooting death aboard a fishing boat and a man found dead in the elevator in his apartment. (This is Sicily, after all.) Catarella plays a larger part in this book, though […]
The Terra-Cotta Dog (1996/2002) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli I was out of sorts yesterday and didn’t know what I wanted to read. Since I recently read Montalbano’s First Case, I decided I wanted to read some Andrea Camilleri–despite the fact that the first book in the series was loaned out to someone and […]
Generation V (2013) M.L. Brennan Fortitude Scott is the youngest of three children, and a vampire. But being a century and a half younger than his closest sibling, Chivalry, makes things difficult. Especially since he hasn’t fully transitioned and is trying very hard to hold onto his humanity. First, I really liked the vampire mythology […]
Montalbano’s First Case (2004/2013) Andrea Camilleri translated by Gianluca Rizzo and Dominic Siracusa I love Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Salvo Montalbano… well, let me clarify. I find him fascinating, but in person I think he could be unbearable if you irritated him. Which I most likely would. But I love reading about him. This is the […]
Equal Rites (1987) Terry Pratchett I have no idea how it happened, but I discovered that I hadn’t read this book before. That has now been rectified. This is, I believe, the third Discworld book, so the characters and world are still being developed, as is the style one expects from later books. That doesn’t […]
The Affinity Bridge (2009) George Mann It’s difficult to find words to describe precisely how terrible this book is. But I’m going to try. Newbury and Hobbes are crown investigators working for Queen Victoria–who is still quite alive, even though it late 1901–looking into cases that are important to the monarchy and government. Newbury apparently […]
Black Arts (2014) Faith Hunter I really wish this book had come out over the holidays. Instead, it comes out at the start of the week, after school is back in session, so I have to wait until the weekend to read it, lest I lose sleep staying up all night to finish it. For […]
Monster on the Hill (2013) Rob Harrell This is a comic/graphic novel for kids. It’s cute and amusing, but perhaps a tad bit heavy-handed with the lesson. But what is it about? Stoker-on-Avon has a monster problem. More specifically, their monster is terrible. He doesn’t come out and scare the townspeople, he just sits in […]
Basho and the River Stones (2004) Tim Myers and Oki S. Han Somehow, I got it into my mind that this was a completely different kind of book. This is a children’s book, and I have the kindle version, so keep that in mind because it affects how I feel about the book. The story […]
Taken (2012) Benedict Jacka After a terrible apprenticeship, Alex Verus hasn’t wanted much to do with other mages, and the Light Council in particular. But he’s starting to get a reputation, and it’s a reputation of someone whose enemies tend to end up missing or dead. None of this is really Alex’s fault, but it […]
The Grendel Affair (2013) Lisa Shearin I came across this on a book blog–although I have absolutely no idea which one it was. It was an early review (the book was published on the last day of the year), and it looked intriguing, so I put it onto my wish list. A month or so […]
Cursed (2012) Benedict Jacka This is the second Alex Verus novel, and finds Alex once again working with members of the council. The outer wall was topped with ragged coils of razor wire. The wire was rusted and full of holes that hadn’t been repaired in years, as if the owners had decided that they […]