Treasure Hunt (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries)
Sicilian police inspector Salvo Montalbano has a way of finding himself in some truly oddball situations, but this time he outdoes himself, with the oddball gauge securely in the red zone from the get-go. It starts with a comical action scene: a crazed brother and sister open fire from their apartment window on the plaza below, prompting Montalbano to turn Spider-Man and scale the building, collaring the seventysomething snipers. The inspector’s unlikely heroics are heralded in the press, prompting a curious response: someone begins sending Salvo peculiar notes, in rhyme, demanding that he take part in a treasure hunt. The clues seem only eccentric in the beginning, but as Montalbano follows the paths they chart, he begins to sense a sinister undertone. Could the hunt possibly tie in to the disappearance of a local girl? As always, Camilleri expertly mixes comedy with serious crime, but this time the evil foreshadowings dominate the tone (harking back to the earlier volumes in the series). Salvo wears his melancholy well—musings on aging accentuate the dark direction of the plot—and the bittersweet ending hits just the right end note. --Bill Ott