August Heat - Softcover

Camilleri, Andrea

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1509850384 ISBN 13: 9781509850389

Publisher: Picador, 2017

Synopsis

August Heat by Andrea Camilleri, is the tenth instalment in the Inspector Montalbano series, adapted as a major BBC4 television series.

Montalbano quickly slammed the trunk shut and sat down on top of it. When the beam from Livia's torch shone on his face, he automatically smiled.

'What's in the trunk?' Livia asked.

'Nothing. It's empty.'

How could he possibly have told her there was a corpse inside?

The lazy, slow month of August at the height of the Sicilian summer is, Inspector Montalbano assures his girlfriend Livia as they prepare for a relaxing holiday in a villa he has found for them, far too hot for any murders to be committed. But when Livia's friends' young son goes missing, a chain of events is sparked which will certainly ruin the Chief Inspector's pleasant interlude.

A secret apartment and a grisly find in an old trunk are just the beginning, as Montalbano navigates his way though the case, as well as coping with the sweltering heat, the suspicious death of an Arab labourer and the tempting lure of a beautiful girl . . .

August Heat is followed by the eleventh book in the series, The Wings of the Sphinx.

About this title

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1509850384
• ISBN 13: 9781509850389
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288