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August Heat (An Inspector Montalbano Mystery) / Andrea Camilleri
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Fans of detective novelists Donna Leon and Michael Dibdin will make an easy transition to Andrea Camilleri’s Italy-based detective series (originally published in Italian for an Italian readership).

In August Heat Sicily is suffering with oppressive late summer temperatures when a body is discovered in a trunk in a secret lower-floor apartment of a vacation rental, a rental that Inspector Montalbano had arranged as a favor to his girlfriend. Details about the crime, which happened six years ago, emerge against a backdrop of colorful Sicilian characters operating within a confusing web of Italian bureaucracy and political intrigue.


The way Montalbano conducts police business is unorthodox, to say the least, and his unusual approach may be one reason that reading this series is so refreshing. And it would not be a proper Italian detective novel without detailed descriptions of food and eating, of which there are many. Even though the translation is sometimes awkward, it is a rewarding read. The translator provides notes at the end of the novel regarding political and cultural references that might be unfamiliar to the American reader. ©Ken Vesey

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