August Heat - Hardcover

Andrea Camilleri

4.01

6,316 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0330457292 ISBN 13: 9780330457293

Publisher: Picador, 2009

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When a colleague extends his summer vacation, Inspector Salvo Montalbano is forced to stay in Vigata and endure the August heat. Montalbano's long-suffering girlfriend, Livia, joins him with a friend husband and young son in tow to keep her company during these dog days of summer. But when the boy suddenly disappears into a narrow shaft hidden under the family s beach rental, Montalbano uncovers something terribly sinister. As the inspector spends the summer trying to solve this perplexing case, Livia refuses to answer his calls and Montalbano is left to take a plunge that will affect the rest of his life. Fans of the Sicilian inspector as well as readers new to this increasingly popular series will enjoy following the melancholy but unflinchingly moral Montalbano as he undertakes one of the most shocking investigations of his career.

August Heat is read by Grover Gardner who won the prestigious 2009 Audie(tm) Award for best narration in the mystery category for his reading of Camilleri's Voice of the Violin.

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About the Author:

ANDREA CAMILLERI is an international bestselling author. He lives in Rome.

STEPHEN SARTARELLI is an award-winning translator and poet. He lives in France.

From Booklist:

Camilleri’s alternately brooding and life-loving Sicilian police inspector Salvo Montalbano may be the most agonizingly human lead character in the mystery genre. The inspector’s all-too-recognizable shortcomings, from lethargy to lust, are on view in this latest episode in which a summer rental—procured by Salvo for friends of his girlfriend, Livia—becomes a kind of Italian Amityville horror. If an insect infestation isn’t enough to turn the holiday into a fiasco, the body found in a concealed basement apartment does the trick nicely, leaving Montalbano on the outs with Livia and forced to contend with a six-year-old murder. As the inspector endures the August heat (often by sitting in his office in his underwear), he faces an even more formidable obstacle: his overwhelming attraction to the victim’s stunning twin sister. Montalbano’s various weaknesses lead directly to the troubling finale, leaving him forced to, yes, strip off his clothes one more time and dive into the sea, hoping to swim away his regrets. Combine the movies Body Heat and The Seven-Year Itch, blending the noir of the former with the farce of the latter, and you have something like this beguiling tragicomedy. --Bill Ott

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