Book Review: The Terra-Cotta Dog

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

The Terra-Cotta Dog     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Andrea Camilleri
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Series: Inspector Montalbano # 2

Inspector Salvo Montalbano returns in this second of four new translations from the Italian. The inspector receives a phone call from a well known member of the Mafia, asking for a private conference. When the two men meet, the Mafioso offers to surrender to Montalbano's custody, in order to receive reliable medical care and be safe from retribution from his nefarious colleages. The inspector agrees, arranges for the surrender, and the Mafioso is transferred into custody.

But in custody things go awry, and Montalbano is coping with a situation he had planned carefully to prevent. In the meantime, a supermarket is robbed of its inventory. Inexplicably the truck containing the goods is found abandoned in plain sight in the nearby community.

The two cases converge when Montalbano follows a tip from the captured Mafioso to a cache of weapons in a cave. But there is another grisly discovery there as well and the inspector finds himself with two bodies on his hands, a pair who died over fifty years earlier. Eventually a ring of weapons smugglers is part of the mix, as well as traditions from Sicilian history and a forbidden love affair of the WWII years.

Another wonderfully atmospheric trip to Sicily, with the warm sea and an abundance of good food.

Woodstock - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Woodstock - RAM