The Terra-Cotta Dog (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries) [Hardcover]

How do you solve a crime that occurred in Sicily during World War II? The Inspector is obsessed with the case, and searches for all of the relevant clues, from former family and friends, to the meaning of the terra-cotta dog, along with the other artifacts that were found alongside of the lovers. What follows is a very clever tale and trail of answers.

While this mystery unfolds, the storyline reveals the Inspector's complex human nature, and his enigmatic relationships with his girlfriend, co-workers and bosses. The Inspector is passionate, quirky, self-righteous and egotistical. This leads to some bizarre personal behaviors. For example, when Montalbano, who is a cop, learns of the rape and incest of a friend, he chooses a very much out-of-bounds and non-legal method of dealing with the perp. So much for being a cop.

THE TERRA-COTTA DOG is more than a single-dimension murder mystery. It is literature-like in its look at human relations, and the realities and rationalizations that make these characters tick. But as a murder mystery, by way of the Inspector's astute police methods, it doesn't get any better than this.

Several threads are very cleverly intertwined in this story, which begins with a meeting with Montalbano's boyhood friend Gege Gullota, a small-time hood to whom we were introduced in the first volume in this series. A famous and highly placed Mafioso has requested that Gege arrange a meeting between the Inspector and this individual, and the consequences flowing from this meeting form the backdrop for much of the storyline which dominates the early part of the book. There is another element of the story which at first appears unrelated but in typical Camilleri fashion is eventually interwoven with the main plot, this involves a strange supermarket heist in the middle of the night only to have the loot found in an abandoned truck the next day. Unexpected deaths and attempted murders soon occur, and the trail of events leads Montalbano to a mysterious mountain hiding place for contraband and the eventual discovery of evidence of a fifty year old crime in a hidden and long sealed grotto watched over by THE TERRA-COTTA DOG whose presence is the basis for the title of the book.

As the story proceeds. Montalbano's life itself is threatened, and the resultant events ironically enough provide him with the opportunity to engage in a digression from his police work and satisfy his curiosity regarding the long ago tableau which he literally unearthed. This is both a police procedural and a character study, and it succeeds wonderfully in both respects. Part of the charm is that many of the characters from the earlier story appear, providing continuity and a feeling of familiarity. We gradually become better acquainted with the Inspector's police associates, as well as with his personality quirks and eating and reading habits. Finally, a scene where Livia (his friend and lover), Anna (the young woman infatuated with him), and Ingrid (the beautiful foreigner whom he has secretly helped in return for her secret aid in his investigations) all appear simultaneously to express their concern for his safety is a wonderful moment. Thus, some part of my greater enjoyment of this book than the first volume clearly resulted from the fact that in the tradition of other successful detective series this book continued and built upon the foundation of the earlier volume. Sicily and the fictional town of Vigata and its citizens and environs seem to come alive with the help of the author's careful attention to detail. One nice feature of this series that deserves comment is the fact that this is one of those Penguin soft covers that really are pocket sized, so they conveniently fit in a corner of your bag or coat pocket and are easy to read on the train or plane.

My only caution would be that these are stories of detail, both with regard to Montalbano's personal habits and also with regard to the mysteries themselves. There are only brief moments of intense action, and most of the violence happens outside the direct scope of the narrative. The details are cataloged and evaluated by the author with regard to Montalbano and by Montalbano with regard to the various mysteries which he is trying to unravel. The solution to the mystery of THE TERRRA COTTA DOG is clever, very intellectually satisfying, internally consistent but in some ways very quiet and anti-climatic in tone.

Disclaimer:While I was contacted by an employee of the publisher and asked to review the most recent book in the series, I wanted to introduce myself to the character as the author intended and decided to read the volumes in order to determine if the series was of interest to me. Based on my enjoyment of the first two stories, I definitely plan to further enjoy following Detective Montalbano as he attempts to solve additional cases. As a disclaimer, I know no one employed by the publisher and have had no contact with either the author or translator. However, I believe it appropriate to disclose that as is customary I was furnished a review copy of this book but I did not provide any assurance that I would produce a review or what its contents would be if I did so.

Tucker Andersen

As in the first book, the main pleasure comes from watching him elegantly glide through this old crime, digging up the dirt from WWII, when the Allies drove the German and Italian forces off the island. Camilleri is old enough to recall those times, and his firsthand knowledge seeps through the voices of the old-timers Montalbano interviews. Meanwhile, he's also dealing with his long-distance girlfriend who just wants to go on vacation with him, and the troubles of his beautiful Swedish friend. He's an entertaining hero, realistic about what he can do within the constraints of the highly political and corrupt system, and willing to bend rules himself, but always tempered with compassion and empathy. Another deftly translated and beautifully understated mystery that gives a very tangible sense of Sicily.

Note: Throughout the book, the Inspector is reading one of Spanish author Manuel Vasquez Montalban's Pepe Carvalho mysteries.