Wednesday, January 19, 2022

The Cook of the Halcyon

image from Amazon


The Cook of the Halcyon is the 27th book in the Inspector Montalbano mystery series by Andrea Camilleri. I get a kick out of the characters, and the food descriptions always make me long for Italian food. There's more humor in these than in most mystery books, but it's gently added without making the books at all funny. They should be read in order as the characters develop during the course of the series. I read them as my generous husband gives them to me. Alas, the author died back in 2019, and there is just one more.

from the back of the book:
Giovanni Tricanato has brought ruin to the shipyard he inherited from his father, and when a newly fired worker hangs himself from a hull under construction, Inspector Montalbano is called to the scene. In short order, the Inspector loses his temper with the crass Giovanni and delivers a slap to his face. Unfortunately, it won't be the last he sees of Trincanato. Meanwhile, a mysterious schooner called the Halcyon shows up in the harbor, seemingly deserted except for just one man. With its presence come even more mysteries, another death, and the arrival of the FBI. Alongside Sicilian American agent Penninsi, Montalbano and his team must attempt a suspenseful infiltration operation in this new page-turning Inspector Montalbano mystery.
Publishers Weekly says, "Once again, Camilleri ... does a fine job balancing comedy and crime."

22 comments:

  1. I have also enjoyed the food descriptions in the books & the development of characters (always like visiting with friends) & what I crave after each book is clam linguini with a rich white sauce ...

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  2. That cover is making me dream of warmer climes. Like the old commercials Ooooh, Bahamas

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    1. He lives on a beach. Must be heaven!

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  3. ...sounds interesting.

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  4. I really like the cover and a good review.

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    1. I should pay more attention to the artists who do book covers.

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  5. Mystery books always appeal to me.

    Movie: The Final Wish (2018) - good. (and Lin Shaye, the actress from Insidious, is in it.)

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    1. Thanks for the movie tip :)

      There are so many mysteries!

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  6. I really do need to "investigate" this series. It sounds very good.

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  7. You've read these before and I need to try them. And it is nice to have a generous husband, especially one who is generous with books.

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  8. Oh, stop, stop, stop, LOL!
    HA! Soon I´ll have home-made Pizza muffins for breakfast :-)

    Yes, I get hooked to movies / books by characters, too and I won´t watch a movie if II don´t like the actors in the first place - Ingot hinks it´s dumb, but... that´s me ;-) And maybe you.

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    1. There aren't many actors I refuse to watch, but there are a couple. It's hard to get past that dislike of the actor to get into the movie.

      Pizza muffins for breakfast sounds like a plan! :)

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  9. I enjoyed quite a few of the early Montalbano books, but there were one or two that I didn't like. I think I'll have to return to the series and try this one.

    best... mae at maefoood.blogspot.com

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    1. I guess there are bound to be some that aren't as good...

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  10. I normally HATE seeing comment moderation, but it is good when I'm as far behind as I am visiting. My sincere apologies. Sounds like another great Montalbano mystery. You always make them sound so interesting, I want to rush out and see if my library carries the series.

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    1. I say there's no such thing as "late" with a blog post. I mourn the fact that past posts are never returned to lol, but I love seeing comments on earlier posts :)

      I didn't start comment moderation 'til I started seeing random spam, usually links advertising stuff, sometimes on posts decades old. So odd :(

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    2. I went through my spam folder about a year ago and found I had 238 unwanted messages from a New Year's post back in 2009. It took forever to get them all off the post. Blogger doesn't make it easy to get rid of unwanted comments, that's for sure.

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    3. I've been finding real comments in my spam folder lately while spam comments show up in "pending". So strange.

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