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Titles in this set:
The Shape of Water
The Terracotta Dog
The Snack Thief
The Voice of the Violin,
Excursion to Tindari
The Scent of the Night
Rounding the Mark
The Patience of the Spider
The Paper Moon
August Heat
The Wings of the Sphinx
The Track of Sand
The Potter's Field
The Age of Doubt
The Dance Of The Seagull
The Treasure Hunt
Angelica's Smile
Game of Mirrors

Description

The Shape of Water
The goats of Vigata once grazed on the trash-strewn site still known as the Pasture. Now local enterprise of a different sort flourishes: drug dealers and prostitutes of every flavour. But their discreet trade is upset when two employees of the Splendour Refuse Collection Company discover the body of engineer Silvio Luparello, one of the local movers and shakers, apparently deceased in flagrante at the Pasture. The coroner's verdict is death from natural causes - refreshingly unusual for Sicily. But Inspector Salvo Montalbano, as honest as he is streetwise and as scathing to fools and villains as he is compassionate to their victims, is not ready to close the case - even though he's being pressured by Vigata's police chief, judge, and bishop. Picking his way through a labyrinth of high-comedy corruption, delicious meals, vendetta firepower, and carefully planted false clues, Montalbano can be relied on, whatever the cost, to get to the heart of the matter.

The Terracotta Dog
The Terracotta Dog opens with a mysterious with a Mafioso, some inexplicably abandoned loot from a supermarket heist, and some dying words that lead Inspector Montalbano to a secret grotto in a mountain cave where two young lovers dead fifty years and still embracing are watched over by a life-size terracotta dog. Montalbano passion to solve this old crime takes him, heedless of personal danger, on a journey through the island past and into a family dark heart amid the horrors of World War II. Andrea Camilleri Inspector Salvo Montalbano has garnered millions of fans worldwide with his sardonic, engaging take on Sicilian small-town life and his genius for deciphering the most enigmatic of crimes. The novels of Andrea Camilleri breath out the sense of place, the sense of humour, and the sense of despair that fill the air of Sicily. To read him is to be taken to that glorious, tortured island Donna Leon Both farcical and endearing, Montalbano is a cross between Columbo and Chandler Philip Marlowe, with the added culinary idiosyncrasies of an Italian Maigret Guardian

The Snack Thief
Never has Inspector Montalbanos character a unique blend of humor, cynicism, compassion, earthiness, and love of good food been more compelling than in The Snack Thief. When an elderly man is stabbed to death in an elevator and a crewman on an Italian fishing trawler is machine-gunned by a Tunisian patrol boat off Sicily coast, only Inspector Montalbano suspects a link between the two incidents. His investigation leads to the beautiful Karima, an impoverished house cleaner and sometime prostitute, whose young son steals other school children mid-morning snacks. But Karima disappears, and the young snack thief life as well as Montalbano is endangered when the inspector exposes a viper nest of government corruption and international intrigue.

The Voice of the Violin
The commissioner kept looking at him with an expression that combined contempt and commiseration, apparently discerning unmistakable signs of senile dementia in the inspector. going to speak very frankly, Montalbano. I don't have a very high opinion of you. "Nor I of you, the inspector replied bluntly. Montalbano's gruesome discovery of a naked young woman suffocated in her bed immediately sets him on a search for her killer. Among the suspects are her aging husband, a famous doctor; a shy admirer, now disappeared; an antiques-dealing lover from Bologna; and the victim's friend Anna, whose charms Montalbano cannot help but appreciate. But it is a mysterious, reclusive violinist who holds the key to this murder . . .

Excursion to Tindari
Maybe a phrase, a line, a hint somewhere would reveal a reason, any reason, for the elderly couple disappearance. They saved everything . . . there was even a copy of the certificate of living existence, that nadir of bureaucratic imbecility . . . What was the protocol, to use a word dear to government offices? Did one simply write on a sheet of paper something like:I, the undersigned, Salvo Montalbano, hereby declare myself to be in existence, sign it, and turn it in to the appointed clerk? A young Don Juan is found murdered in front of his apartment building early one morning, and an elderly couple is reported missing after an excursion to the ancient site of Tindari two seemingly unrelated cases for Inspector Montalbano to solve amid the daily complications of life at Vig ta police headquarters. But when Montalbano discovers that the couple and the murdered young man lived in the same building, his investigation stumbles onto Sicily's brutal New Mafia which leads him down a path more evil and more far-reaching than any he has been down before. Praise for Andrea Camilleri: A joy to read The Times This savagely funny police procedural proves that sardonic laughter is a sound that translates ever so smoothly into English New York Times

The Scent of the Night
Montalbano learned how hard it was to put on a wetsuit while in a dinghy speeding over a sea that wasn't exactly calm. Mimì, at the helm, looked tense and worried. "Getting seasick?the inspector asked him at one point. "No. Just sick of myself. "Why? "Because every now and then I realize what a stupid shit I am to go along with some of your brilliant ideas. When an angry octogenarian holds a terrified and lovelorn secretary at gunpoint, Inspector Montalbano is reluctantly drawn into the case. The secretary boss, a financial advisor, has vanished along with several billion lire entrusted to him by the good citizens of Vigata. Also missing is the advisor young colleague, whose uncle just happens to be building a house on the site of Inspector Montalbano very favourite olive tree . . . Ably abetted by his loyal and eccentric team, Montalbano, the food-loving, commitment-phobic inspector, returns for another delicious investigation served up in vintage Camilleri style.

Rounding the Mark
He began swimming in slow, broad strokes. The sea smelled harsh, stinging his nostrils like champagne, and he nearly got drunk on it . . . In a fraction of a second, Montalbano realized he struck a human foot. Somebody else was floating right beside him, and he hadnt noticed."Excuse me, he said hastily, flipping back onto his belly and looking over at the other.The person beside him didn't answer, because he wasn't doing the dead man float. He was actually dead. And, to judge from the way he looked, he been so for quite a while. Increasingly disillusioned with his government and the world in general, Inspector Montalbano is considering retirement. He is starting to feel his age, and even his favourite restaurant has closed. But when he bumps into a dead body during a bracing swim, his detective instincts are aroused once more. Particularly when the most likely identity of the victim is a man already long buried . . .

The Patience of the Spider
A brother,' he said. Jesus Christ! Now where this brother come from? Whose brother? Montalbano had known from the start that between all the brothers, uncles, in-laws, nephews and nieces, this case was going to drive him crazy. Chief Inspector Montalbano is on enforced sick leave. But when a local girl goes mysteriously missing, the whole community takes an interest in the case. Why are the kidnappers so sure that the girl impoverished father and dying mother will be able to find a fortune? The ever-inquisitive Montalbano steps in, to get to the heart of the matter in his own inimitable style.

The Paper Moon
Motionless, Montalbano waited for the surf to enter his brain and wash it clean with each breaker. At last the first light wave came like a caress, swiiissshhh, and carried away, glugluglug, Elena Sclafani and her beauty, while Michela Pardo tits, belly, arched body and eyes likewise disappeared. Once Montalbano the man was erased, all that should remain was Inspector Montalbano a kind of abstract function, the person who was supposed to solve the case and nothing more, with no personal feelings involved. But as he was telling himself this, he knew perfectly well that he could never pull it off. As he gets older, Inspector Montalbano is plagued by existential questions. But he doesn't have much time to wax philosophical before the gruesome murder of a man shot in the face at point-blank range with his pants down commands his attention. Add two evasive, beautiful women as prime suspects, dirty cocaine, dead politicians, mysterious computer codes, and a series of threatening letters, and things soon get very complicated at the police headquarters in Vig ta.Wonderful Italian detective stories Guardian A magnificent series of novels Sunday Times

August Heat
As seen on TV: now a major BBC4 television series. Montalbano quickly slammed the trunk shut and sat down on top of it. When the beam from Livia torch shone on his face, he automatically smiled. What in the trunk? Livia asked. Nothing. It's empty. How could he possibly have told her there was a corpse inside? The lazy, slow month of August at the height of the Sicilian summer is, Inspector Montalbano assures his girlfriend Livia as they prepare for a relaxing holiday in a villa he has found for them, far too hot for any murders to be committed. But when Livia's friends young son goes missing, a chain of events is sparked which will certainly ruin the Chief Inspector pleasant interlude. A secret apartment and a grisly find in an old trunk are just the beginning, as Montalbano navigates his way though the case, as well as coping with the sweltering heat, the suspicious death of an Arab labourer and the tempting lure of a beautiful girl . . . A magnificent series of novels Sunday Times Wonderful Italian detective stories Guardian

The Wings of the Sphinx
The Wings of the Sphinx is the eleventh book in the wickedly funny Inspector Montalbano series by Italian author, Andrea Camilleri. Things are not going well for Inspector Montalbano. His long-distance relationship with Livia is on the rocks, he feels himself getting even older and he's growing tired of the violence in his job. Then the dead body of a young woman is found in an illegal dump, with half her face missing. Her identity at first unknown; a tattoo of a sphinx moth on her left shoulder links her with three other girls bearing the same mark, all recent Russian immigrants to Italy. Victims of an underworld sex trade, these girls have been rescued from the Mafia night-club circuit by a Catholic charity organization. The problem is, the other girls can't help Montalbano with his enquiries. They are all missing. As his investigations progresses, it seems that not everyone wants Montalbano to discover what really lies behind the organization's charitable façade. And not only does Montalbano have a case to solve, he has a demanding stomach to feed, and he must save his foundering relationship with Livia . . . The Wings of the Sphinx is followed by the twelfth gripping mystery, The Track of Sand.

The Track of Sand
The Track of Sand is Andrea Camilleri's twelfth outing in the wryly humorous Inspector Montalbano series. Inspector Montalbano rises one morning to find the carcass of a horse on the beach in front of his seaside home. But no sooner do his men arrive, than the body has mysteriously vanished, leaving only a track in the sand. Before long Rachele, a beguiling equestrian champion, turns up at police headquarters to report her horse missing. The horse had been stabled at the grounds of a certain Saverio Lo Duca, one of the richest men in Sicily. Lo Duca has lost one of his own horses too. Montalbano, his curiosity piqued, investigates, but before long things take a more disturbing turn . . . But who has Montalbano upset within this strange, unfamiliar world of horse-racing? And what has the Mafia to do with it all? The Track of Sand is followed by the thirteenth novel in the series, The Potter's Field. A remarkable series. The Track of Sand is as funny and intriguing as the best of its predecessors' Independent

The Potter's Field
A major BBC4 television series. Winner of the CWA international Dagger Award 2012 From the Italian crime legend, Andrea Camilleri, comes The Potter's Field, a dark mystery featuring the inimitable Inspector Montalbano. While Vigàta is wracked by storms, Inspector Montalbano is called to attend the discovery of a dismembered body in a field of clay. Bearing all the marks of an execution style killing, it seems clear that this is, once again, the work of the notorious local mafia. But who is the victim? Why was the body divided into thirty pieces? And what is the significance of the Potter's Field Working to decipher these clues, Montalbano must also confront the strange and difficult behaviour exhibited by his old colleague Mimi, and avoid the distraction of the enchanting Dolores Alfano - who seeks the inspector's help in locating her missing husband. But like the Potter's Field itself, Montalbano is on treacherous ground and only one thing is certain - nothing is quite as it seems . . . The Potter's Field is followed by The Age of Doubt, the fourteenth in the series

The Age of Doubt
Andrea Camilleri's sensational Inspector Montalbano continues in the fourteenth instalment, The Age of Doubt. A chance encounter with a strange young woman leads Inspector Montalbano to Vigàta harbour - and into a puzzling new mystery. The crew of a mysterious yacht - the Vanna - due to dock in the area have discovered a corpse floating in the water, the dead man's face badly disfigured. It isn't long before Montalbano begins to become suspicious of the Vanna's inhabitants. Who is the yacht's owner, the glamorous and short-tempered Livia Giovannini? How has she accrued her riches? And why does she spend so much time at sea? Meanwhile Montalbano finds himself getting into tangles with the dreaded Commissioner, the exasperating Dr Lattes and a very beautiful young woman at the harbour, with whom he becomes dangerously besotted . . . Can the Inspector clear his head long enough to unravel this murky mystery? The Age of Doubt is followed by The Dance of the Seagull, the fifteenth book in the series

The Dance Of The Seagull
The Dance of the Seagull is the fifteenth darkly humorous adventure starring Inspector Montalbano from bestselling author Andrea Camilleri. New edition cover with original Jeff Fisher illustration Inspector Montalbano is awake at dawn, sitting on his porch, when his attention is caught by a seagull which falls from the sky, performing a strange dance, before lying down to die. Montalbano is perplexed by what he has witnessed and the scene hangs over him like an omen. About to depart for a holiday with his girlfriend Livia, Montalbano makes a quick trip to the police station to tie up loose ends. But when his dear colleague Fazio is discovered missing - and it transpires that the policeman has been involved in his own secret investigations - Montalbano instead launches a desperate search for his lost friend, as time begins to run out . . . Navigating a shadowy maze of smuggling, blackmail and the darkest murder, and moving from the docks of Vigàta to its deep, dry wells where the mafia hide their terrible crimes, Inspector Montalbano must have his wits about him to unravel this tangled mystery.

The Treasure Hunt
The Treasure Hunt is the sixteenth gripping novel in Andrea Camilleri's bestselling Inspector Montalbano series. Montalbano opened the door to step out. But Gallo held him back, putting one hand on his arm. What's in there, Chief? If it's what I think, it's something so horrific that it'll haunt your dreams for the rest of your life . . .When a crazed elderly man and his sister begin firing bullets from their balcony down onto the Vigàta street below, Inspector Montalbano finds himself a reluctant television hero A few days later, when a letter arrives containing a mysterious riddle, the Inspector becomes drawn into a perplexing treasure hunt set by an anonymous challenger. As the hunt intensifies, Montalbano is relieved to be offered the assistance of Arturo Pennisi, a young man eager to witness the detective's investigative skills first hand. Fending off meddling commissioners and his irate girlfriend, Livia, the inspector will follow the treasure hunt's clues and travel from Vigàta's teeming streets to its deserted outskirts: where an abandoned house overlooks a seemingly bottomless lake. But when a horrifying crime is committed, the game must surely be laid aside. And it isn't long before Montalbano himself will be in terrible danger .

Angelica's Smile
Angelica's Smile is the seventeenth gripping title in the hit Italian Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri. After sitting in the car on the hill for about ten minutes, Montalbano realized this was a big mistake. Because he didn't think at all about the investigation, the burglars, or Mr. Z. He thought about Angelica ...What had he done? When members of Vigata's elite are targeted in a series of perfectly executed burglaries, Inspector Montalbano reluctantly takes the case. It soon becomes clear however that more links these privileged few than simply their lost possessions ...It isn't long too before Montalbano finds himself taken with one of the victims, the captivatingly beautiful young Angelica. But as the detective's attraction grows - until he can think of little else - a series of strange, anonymous letters claiming responsibility for the thefts begin to arrive ...With the allure of Angelica beginning to consume him and his relationship with Livia under threat, Montalbano must focus his mind to solve this perplexing investigation before events spiral out of all control. Angelica's Smile is followed by the eighteenth book in the series, Game of Mirrors.

Game of Mirrors
Game of Mirrors is the eighteenth exciting instalment in the Inspector Montalbano mysteries by Andrea Camilleri. When Montalbano comes to the aid of his new neighbour, Liliana Lombardo, after the engine of her car is interfered with, the inspector can little imagine where this innocuous event will lead. It soon transpires that the young woman - beautiful, intelligent and rather vague about the whereabouts of her husband - is being targeted by someone with a grudge against her. But is Liliana's growing interest in Montalbano simply a product of the detective's innate charm? Or is she trying to lead him astray - and into trouble? Meanwhile the inspector finds himself drawn into another mystery when a bomb explodes outside an empty warehouse in Vigàta. But who was the bomb intended for? And why was it left in such a peculiar place? As Montalbano and his colleagues investigate the street's residents - some of whom have suspicious mafia links - they begin to receive a barrage of false clues from an anonymous source. As Liliana's behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and leaks around the case threaten Montalbano's reputation; the sense of danger grows. The inspector soon realizes that, with this investigation, he is being led into a hall of mirrors, where there is danger at every turn and nothing is quite clear . . . Game of Mirrors is followed by the nineteenth Inspector Montalbano novel, Blade of Light.