‘The Track of Sand’ by Andrea Camilleri

Published by Picador,
7 June 2012.
ISBN: 978-0-330-50767-7

This is the 12^th instalment of the adventures of Inspector Montalbano in Sicily. It is the first book about Montalbano that I have read but I am familiar with the Inspector from the Italian TV series recently shown on British TV.

It is strange to open a book and be immediately familiar with the characters but all the police team appeared in the programmes. Mimi Augello, Fazio, Gallo and Galluzzo and particularly Catarella all have parts to play in the investigations, some efficiently performed and others ineptly. An Italian friend of mine remarked that the bumbling Catarella is the only one from the team with a marked Sicilian accent and I notice that the translator gives him an uneducated style with missing letters and suggestions of a dialect. The interplay between the team members and Inspector Salvo Montalbano is always interesting to read (the TV series is subtitled!) and Montalbano’s interaction with the people involved in crimes as perpetrators, victims or administrators often develops in surprising directions.

In this book Montalbano finds a dead horse on the beach near his home when he wakes up one morning. He sends for his men but before they arrive the horse disappears leaving only a track in the sand. The Inspector is piqued by this and determines to discover what has happened. He finds out quite quickly that the world of horse racing is a complex one and that the stakes are indeed high. He is more closely involved in the action than he relishes.

The fascination of the Sicilian setting and the carefully crafted mystery make this a lovely read.
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Reviewer: Jennifer Palmer

Andrea Camilleri (1925-2019) was one of Italy's most famous contemporary writers. His books sold over 65 million copies worldwide. The Inspector Montalbano series, which began with The Shape of Water, has been translated into thirty-two languages and was adapted for Italian television, screened on BBC4. The Potter's Field, the thirteenth book in the series, was awarded the Crime Writers' Association's International Dagger for the best crime novel translated into English. In addition to his phenomenally successful Inspector Montalbano series, he was also the author of the historical comic mysteries Hunting Season and The Brewer of Preston.