The Shape of Water
<b>Italy</b>: Get to know the entertaining police inspector exposing sunny Sicily’s dark side.
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3.9 • 152 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
“You either love Andrea Camilleri or you haven’t read him yet. Each novel in this wholly addictive, entirely magical series, set in Sicily and starring a detective unlike any other in crime fiction, blasts the brain like a shot of pure oxygen...transporting. Long live Camilleri, and long live Montalbano.”
—A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
The Shape of Water is the first book in the sly, witty, and engaging Inspector Montalbano mystery series with its sardonic take on Sicilian life.
Silvio Lupanello, a big-shot in Vigàta, is found dead in his car with his pants around his knees. The car happens to be parked in a part of town used by prostitutes and drug dealers, and as the news of his death spreads, the rumors begin. Enter Inspector Salvo Montalbano, Vigàta's most respected detective. With his characteristic mix of humor, cynicism, compassion, and love of good food, Montalbano battles against the powerful and corrupt who are determined to block his path to the real killer.
Andrea Camilleri's novels starring Inspector Montalbano have become an international sensation and have been translated into numberous languages.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
“Must-read” is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot, but Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano books truly earn the label. This police procedural series stars a brilliant policeman based in Vigàta, Sicily—and the first book in the series is a fast and darkly funny read. When a big-deal local businessman is discovered dead in apparently salacious circumstances, a scandal brews and the dogged Montalbano digs up obstruction and lies in his quest to catch the murderer. Yes, there’s a cauldron of corruption, secrets, and sleaze simmering beneath Vigàta’s charming and sunny surface, but Camilleri’s richly drawn characters and wry dialogue made us want to move there anyway. The Shape of Water is a perfect read for mystery lovers looking for a new obsession.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Urbane Sicilian police inspector Salvo Montalbano, whose exploits have sold more than four million copies in Europe, makes his long overdue U.S. debut in this spare and spry English translation of the first novel in the series. When two garbage collectors find the body of local politician Silvio Luparello locked in his BMW with his pants down, in "the Pasture," the Vig ta town dump frequented by whores and drug dealers, the coroner rules that Luparello died of natural causes, despite clear evidence to the contrary. Montalbano refuses to oblige his superiors who want a hasty close to the case, and it will take a corrupt lawyer's murder to break it open. The author's view of Sicily is the all-too-common one of a poor and backward place that many would like to see separated from the rest of Italy. Camilleri's strength lies in his gallery of eccentric characters: Signora Luparello, the victim's admirably cool widow; Geg , a pimp and old classmate of Montalbano's; Giosue Contino, an 82-year-old schoolteacher who shoots at people because he thinks his 80-year-old wife is cheating on him; and Anna Ferrara, Montalbano's attractive deputy, "who every now and then, for whatever reason, would try to seduce him." Even the two garbage men have Ph.D.s. The maverick Montalbano doesn't hesitate to destroy clues or extract money from a crook to help a child, but his wrapping up the case by telling rather than showing, while acceptable to European audiences, may disappoint action-oriented American fans.
Customer Reviews
Clever and Compelling
Thoroughly enjoyed this refreshing crime story set in a part of the world I know very little about. Inspector Montalbano is tough, clever, and compassionate. Humor, mystery, drama, and some social/political insights . . . My first Camilleri but not my last.