I N C L U D E S A F F I L I A T E L I N K S
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Title: The Shape of WaterAuthor: Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli (translator)
Published: 1994
Language: English (translated from Italian)
Pages: 256
Rating: 3/5
This is the first book in the Inspector Montalbano series.
Summary:
Set in Sicily in the 90's, Inspector Salvo Montalbano decides to take a closer look at the death of a man who apparently has died from natural causes because there's something not quite right about the whole case.
Review:
I've never heard anyone talk about this series, so they were completely unknown to me when I picked this up in a bookshop and what a lovely surprise it is to have discovered it!
I love a good cosy mystery and this was a really good one. I loved the setting of this town and how I could so easily picture it and I loved getting to see its intricate culture. I loved the characters we meet and how they come from all sorts of different walks of life; I also really loved getting to know the Inspector and seeing him try to navigate this case and all the people caught up in it.
There's also something to the way this is written that I really like; I read a review describing it as "light", but that doesn't mean it's without depth, beauty or intelligence. It's a sort of elegant lightless where a story is written without too many or too few words, if that makes any sense. It's quite a quick read but I never felt like there was something missing or something I couldn't picture.
The only reason I have given this 3 stars instead of 4 is that I actually managed to solve the mystery fairly early on, which I'm usually never able to do. I was still interesting to find out if I was right, of course, and I did very much enjoy it; I already can't wait to get my hands on the next books in this series.
You can read more about it on Goodreads
