August Heat: An Inspector Montalbano Mystery
Camilleri’s alternately brooding and life-loving Sicilian police inspector Salvo Montalbano may be the most agonizingly human lead character in the mystery genre. The inspector’s all-too-recognizable shortcomings, from lethargy to lust, are on view in this latest episode in which a summer rental—procured by Salvo for friends of his girlfriend, Livia—becomes a kind of Italian Amityville horror. If an insect infestation isn’t enough to turn the holiday into a fiasco, the body found in a concealed basement apartment does the trick nicely, leaving Montalbano on the outs with Livia and forced to contend with a six-year-old murder. As the inspector endures the August heat (often by sitting in his office in his underwear), he faces an even more formidable obstacle: his overwhelming attraction to the victim’s stunning twin sister. Montalbano’s various weaknesses lead directly to the troubling finale, leaving him forced to, yes, strip off his clothes one more time and dive into the sea, hoping to swim away his regrets. Combine the movies Body Heat and The Seven-Year Itch, blending the noir of the former with the farce of the latter, and you have something like this beguiling tragicomedy. --Bill Ott