When a colleague extends his summer vacation, Inspector Salvo Montalbano is forced to stay in Vigàta 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 moody Inspector Montalbano is further beset by the existential questions that have been plaguing him of late. But he doesn't have much time to wax philosophical before the gruesome murder of a man -- shot at point-blank range in the face with his pants down -- commands his attention. Add two evasive, beautiful women as prime suspects, some dirty cocaine, mysterious computer codes, and a series of threatening letters, and things soon get very complicated...

Montalbano wakes from strange dreams to find a gruesomely bludgeoned horse carcass in front of his seaside home. When his men come to investigate, the carcass disappears, leaving only a trail in the sand. Before long, two people report missing horses - Rachele, a champion equestrian, an Lo Duca, one of the richest men in Sicily. Then Montalbano's home is broken into and is ransacked and he is certain that the crimes are linked. As he negotiates the...

One night, Inspector Montalbano dreams of a stormy sea, which he knows represents unease and loss of control. The next day, a boat is found in the port of Vigata, and within it, the body of a disfigured corpse. The waterfront has also drawn in an eighty-five-foot luxury boat passengered by fifty carefree souls and a somewhat shadowy crew. They will have to stay in Vigata until the investigation is over -- the man, it seems, was poisoned. However,...

Before leaving for vacation, Inspector Montalbano witnesses a seagull doing an odd dance on the beach outside his home, when the bird suddenly drops dead. Stopping in at his office for a quick check before heading off, he notices that his right-hand man, Fazio, is nowhere to be found. Montalbano sets out to find him and discovers that the seagull's dance of death may provide the key to understanding a macabre world of sadism, extortion, and murder....

"In Treasure Hunt, Montalbano is hailed as a hero after news cameras film him scaling a building-- gun in hand-- to capture a pair of unlikely snipers. Shortly after, the inspector begins to receive cryptic messages in verse from someone challenging him to go on a 'treasure hunt.' Intrigued, he accepts, treating the messages as amusing riddles-- until they take a dangerous turn" -- from publisher's web site.

Der Todestanz einer Möwe als Vorbote düsterer Ereignisse? Leider nur zu wahr, denn kurze Zeit später erreicht Commissario Montalbano die Nachricht vom Verschwinden Fazios, seines wichtigsten Mitarbeiters im Polizeikommissariat. Offenbar war Fazio in einen Hinterhalt geraten - mit bisher unbekanntem Ausgang. Die Ermittlungen führen Montalbano ins abgelegene Ödland der Mafia, wo ihm zwei namenlose Tote Rätsel aufgeben. Ebenso wie eine junge Pflegerin...

Eine Serie von Diebstählen sorgt für Aufregung im sizilianischen Vigàta. Als Commissario Montalbano im Rahmen der Ermittlungen Bekanntschaft mit der jungen Angelica Cosulich macht, fühlt er sich schlagartig in seine Jugend zurückversetzt: Mit ihrem wallenden Blondhaar erinnert sie ihn an die Heldin selben Vornamens aus Ariosts Epos Der rasende Roland, die ihm seinerzeit die Träume versüßt hat. Doch hinter dem betörenden Lächeln der Signorina...

"In Game of Mirrors, Inspector Montalbano and his colleagues are stumped when two bombs explode outside empty warehouses-one of which is connected to a big-time drug dealer. Meanwhile, the alluring Liliana Lombardo is trying to seduce the Inspector over red wine and arancini. Between pesky reporters, amorous trysts, and cocaine kingpins, Montalbano feels as if he's being manipulated on all fronts. That is, until the inspector himself becomes the prime...

"From the author of the New York Times-bestselling Inspector Montalbano mystery series, twenty-one short stories spanning the beloved detective's career. Inspector Montalbano has charmed readers in nineteen popular novels, and now in Montalbano's First Case and Other Stories, Andrea Camilleri has selected twenty-one short stories, written with his trademark wit and humor, that follow Italy's famous detective through highlight cases of his career....