Voice of the Violin by
Andrea Camilleri
pbk out January 06
(Picador)
at £7.99
Do you know that feeling when you read an author you've not encountered
before, and you know you're in for a feast? I do, and I'm prepared to bet it will
happen to you when you read this book. And it's all the more pleasing to know there
are other novels by Camilleri to catch up on too. Born in 1925 in Porto Empedocle,
Sicily, Andrea Camilleri is a script editor, and Theatre/TV producer. His first book,
'Il Corso delle Cose' was not published until 1978, and it was not until 17 years later
that he achieved best-seller status. That was when he switched from historical novels
to crime fiction and the Inspector Montalbano stories.
Salvo Montalbano lives and works in the fictional Sicilian town of Vigata,
where he struggles with the corrupt and self-serving hierarchy in the law-keeping
organisation. In this story, the fourth in the series, a car accident created by his police
driver, Gallo – he with the 'Indianapolis Complex' – leads Montalbano to uncover the
murder of Michela Licalzi, who is found naked and suffocated. The minor difficulty
of his finding the body when he had illegally entered the woman's house is no
deterrent to Montalbano, who hastily arranges for a warrant to search the house. He
then can 'rediscover' the body, and find also that her clothes have disappeared. He
soon encounters the husband, who is strangely cold about his wife's death, her lover
from Bologna, and a young stalker of dubious intelligence, whose Peeping Tom
activities are in themselves suspicious. Montalbano confides all this to his old friend
Clementina Vasile Cozzo, above whose apartment lives the reclusive violinist
Maestro Barbera. Coincidentally, the maestro has also met Michela Licalzi.
Much of his investigation is hampered by the activities of his superiors, Judge
Tommaseo, and Commissioner Bonetti-Alderighi, who takes Montalbano off the case,
and replaces him with his own favourite, Panzacchi of the Flying Squad. From this
moment on, things go from bad to worse. It is only by persistence, and use of
contacts in the television world, that Montalbano solves the case, bringing it to a
tragic end.
Camilleri has created a character as food-loving as Donna Leon's Inspector
Brunetti, and as ascerbic and self-assured as Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen. In fact, I
am left wondering if Zen ever came across Montalbano, when he was despatched to
Sicily in the seventh Zen book, 'Blood Rain'. They would have got on well together.
Montalbano is developed as a well-rounded character, with a love of sea-food, a fear
of flying, and a mixed-up personal life involving Livia in Genoa, and a possible
adoption of François. The text is spare and fast-paced, but still full of characterisation
– Camilleri gives the reader just enough to flesh out Montalbano and his protagonists,
but no more than is necessary. No stodge here. He also cooks up a piquant sense of
place second to none. Something should also be said about the success of the
translator, Stephen Sartarelli. His care over conveying Catarella's crude, peasant
dialogue is in particular a joy to read. I can't wait to catch up on the other three
Montalbano books.
(
Ian Morson
Author of Falconer books and short listed for 1999 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Dagger)
Voice of the Violin by
Andrea Camilleri
