A guide to the Inspector Montalbano series by Andrea Camilleri
By
Paul Burke
6 October, 2021
The writer Simonetta Agnello Hornby argued that Andrea Camilleri should have been put forward for the Nobel Prize. He was a major cultural figure in Italy, and in the arts across Europe. Of course, he’s better known in the English speaking world as the creator of one of the best-loved detectives in modern crime fiction, Inspector Salvo Montalbano.
When Camilleri died in 2019 his loss was felt globally but Montalbano’s own adventures still have a little way to run. Perhaps with an eye on his legacy, Camilleri wrote the final mystery for his detective nearly two decades ago and kept it back as a way of ensuring the series would conclude on his terms.
The manuscript of the novel now called Riccardino was locked away in a notary’s safe, only emerging to update the language in 2017 before being secreted away again. It was published in Italy in 2020 before finally appearing in English in autumn 2021.
The Vigàta of the novels is a fictional version of Camilleri’s home town, Porto Empedocle, where he was born in 1925. Montalbano, his irascible and sometimes reprehensibly behaved yet ingenious detective, shares the author’s love of the local culture and the island’s culinary delights.
The mysteries are often based around political events and draw heavily on literary references, helpfully explained by the superb translator, Stephen Sartarelli, in the after notes. These slightly strange mysteries appeal to readers of cosy crime and those with darker tastes. There is always some insight into Sicily’s ills and Italian affairs but the stories are told with a great deal of humour.
As well as appearing on the page, Montalbano is on our screens in two guises. In the series Montalbano he is played by Luca Zingaretti, while Michele Riondino plays Young Montalbano in the spin-off