The Voice of the Violin

The fourth novel in Andrea Camilleri's savagely funny, brilliantly compelling Sicilian crime series featuring Inspector Montalbano The commissioner kept looking at him with an expression that combined contempt and commiseration, apparently discerning unmistakable signs of senile dementia in the inspector. I'm going to speak very frankly, Montalbano. I don't have a very high opinion of you. Nor I of you, the inspector replied bluntly. Montalbano's gruesome discovery of a naked young woman suffocated in her bed immediately sets him on a search for her killer. Among the suspects are her aging husband, a famous doctor; a shy admirer, now disappeared; an antiques-dealing lover from Bologna; and the victim's friend Anna, whose charms Montalbano cannot help but appreciate. But it is a mysterious, reclusive violinist who holds the key to this murder...

Andrea Camilleri is one of Italy's most famous contemporary writers. The Montalbano series has been translated into nine languages and the novels have been bestsellers both in Italy and Germany. The author lives in Rome. Stephen Sartarelli is a poet and translator. He lives in France.