Joan Leotta Reviews: The Cook of the Halcyon by Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli

Please welcome author Joan Leotta to the blog today. This is the first guest reviewer by Joan and hopefully there will be many more to come… 

 

The Cook of the Halcyon by Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli

Review by Joan Leotta

 

Usually I do not like to read a series out of order, but in this case, I made an exception and so should you. This book was conceived more than ten years ago by Andrea Camilleri as an Italian American film project. When circumstances changed regarding its viability Camilleri turned the project into another Camilleri book, one that he put away and is not, after his death coming out  as an out of order book in the series. This is number twenty-seven to be released but in terms of a timeline would have occurred several years before number twenty-six.

 

As often, the book opens with Inspector Montalbano in the middle of a dream. In this case, the inspector has married Livia (his long-term girlfriend who lives in Genoa). Then he finds himself tossed into the sea and is about to drown when he awakens. Catarella, one of Montalbano’s crew, calls from the station to get Montalbano started on a murder—that quickly turns into two murders of two disparate people-- a recently laid -off low level worker and a businessman who turns out to be way less than honorable. The connection between the two initial murders and the spur to  non-stop action, and more, turns out to be a big yacht that stops not far from Vigata now and then, Halcyon. This mysterious ship is a suspected sort of floating international gambling den and brothel. Drug smugglers, gambling, prostitution, the high seas, and a hint of even more nefarious activity attracts American Federal agents, Carabinieri and Italian special units to the scene—so much action! So many actors! Yet, all are kept deftly under the control by Camilleri’s pen.

 

The book’s plotting and drama benefit from the pacing of film and of course, the book shows the author’s usual skill with characters, dialogue, and the wonderful Sicilian setting. While I do not want to give away the plot which takes our dear gourmand Inspector Montalbano asks Adelina to show him how to  cook. This knowledge , later in the novel makes him the captain of his own destiny—in the Kitchen, and yes, in a ship’s galley!

 

The one caveat with this novel is that you will want to read it all in one sitting—and afterward, you will be searching the internet for some of Montalbano’s kitchen creations. It will leave you  hungry also for more Montalbano novels—of course. There is at least one more coming out, likely the last, the one that will finish the series, something Camilleri wrote and put into a vault when he felt that his death was near (although he outlasted his own predictions by several years) so that his fans would not be left hanging as to his intentions for the men of the station at Vigata and all of the other characters Camilleri created, and we have grown to love. It is with sadness and joyful anticipation in equal parts that I await the 28^th and likely final book in the Inspector Montalbano series. If you want to settle yourself down for a long and delightful visit to Sicily start with the Shape of Water, the first one in the Inspector Montalbano series.

Five stars for The Cook of the Halcyon, five stars for the entire series. 

  

•           Publisher: Penguin Books (March 16, 2021)

•           Language: English

•           Paperback: 256 pages

•           ISBN-10: 014313618 

 

Joan Leotta ©2021

Joan Leotta plays with words on page and stage. Her poetry, essays, cnf , short stories, and articles are widely published. Mysteries are favorite things to read..short and long..and to write.

When not worki gushed is either curled up with a book or hunting for seashells.