The Terra-Cotta Dog (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries)

Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano has garnered millions of fans worldwide with his sardonic take on Sicilian life. Montalbano's latest case begins with a mysterious têtê à têtê with a Mafioso, some inexplicably abandoned loot from a supermarket heist, and dying words that lead him to an illegal arms cache in a mountain cave. There, the inspector finds two young lovers, dead for fifty years and still embracing, watched over by a life-sized terra-cotta dog. Montalbano's passion to solve this old crime takes him on a journey through Sicily's past and into one family's darkest secrets. With sly wit and a keen understanding of human nature, Montalbano is a detective whose earthiness, compassion, and imagination make him totally irresistable.

Customer Reviews:

THE TERRA-COTTA DOG - Heels for the dead

By Dean Redfern - December 27, 2003

A most-wanted Italian mob boss invites series character Inspector Montalbano to a personal meeting - and to an odd agreement to stage the Mafioso's arrest and detainment. This new mutual respect, between cop and capo, leads to a cave that has entombed two dead and entwined lovers for fifty years.How do you solve a crime that occurred in Sicily during World War II? The Inspector is obsessed with the case, and searches for all of the relevant clues, from former family and friends, to the meaning of the terra-cotta dog, along with the other artifacts that were found alongside of the lovers. What follows is a very clever tale and trail of answers. While this mystery unfolds, the storyline reveals the Inspector's complex human nature, and his enigmatic relationships with his girlfriend, co-workers and bosses. The Inspector is passionate, quirky, self-righteous and egotistical. This leads to some bizarre personal behaviors. For example, when Montalbano, who is a cop, learns of... read more

Inspector Montalbano's Curiosity Is Finally Satisfied

By Tucker Andersen - January 13, 2004

This is the second translation by Stephen Sartrelli that I have read of an Inspector Salvo Montalbano mystery by Andrea Camilleri, and I enjoyed it immensely. While THE SHAPE OF WATER (four star review 12/18/03) was an entertaining introductory volume to this series (which has become a best seller in Europe), I found the author's technique in this story of utilizing a present day mystery which Montalbano has to unravel as the introduction to an unrelated fifty year old murder mystery to be both clever and unusual. Usually when such crimes are resurrected decades after their occurrence, it is because they have some direct connection to the present day events under investigation, not the casual and coincidental connection which is the case in this story.Several threads are very cleverly intertwined in this story, which begins with a meeting with Montalbano's boyhood friend Gege Gullota, a small-time hood to whom we were introduced in the first volume in this series. A famous and... read more

Utterly Charming!

By A. Ross - April 4, 2003

The second Inspector Montalbano book to appear in English (following The Shape of Water) begins with a high-level Mafia figure arranging for his own arrest by Montalbano and a seemingly innocuous nighttime heist from a grocery store. However nothing is simple in Sicilian underworld, and soon Montalbano's curiosity has him looking into the heist as he desperately avoids getting a promotion for his high-profile arrest. When this leads to the discovery of bodies sealed up fifty years ago in a strange tableau, the Inspector becomes determined to unravel the mystery of their death.As in the first book, the main pleasure comes from watching him elegantly glide through this old crime, digging up the dirt from WWII, when the Allies drove the German and Italian forces off the island. Camilleri is old enough to recall those times, and his firsthand knowledge seeps through the voices of the old-timers Montalbano interviews. Meanwhile, he's also dealing with his long-distance girlfriend who... read more