Customer Reviews

The Dance Of The Seagull (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries)

Inspector Salvo Montalbano has been going through some age-related adjustments over the past couple of books in this rich crime series. His life and the stories have been suffering a bit from the esteemed Inspector's preoccupations with physical changes (at age 57), diminishing tolerance of Sicilian/Italian politics and bureaucracy and an overall decrease in confidence in satisfaction with his job performance. Despite the thrashing around, Montalbano has pretty much been able to pull it together by the end of each book (always with some help from the kitchen).

"The Dance of the Seagull" follows this general direction and delivers a pretty satisfactory read by the last page. The story opens with some horribly uncomfortable moments of total miscommunication between Montalbano and his long-time main squeeze, Livia. He does something that literally set my teeth on edge for twenty or so pages and calls into question his continuing relationship with Livia or any other woman. His excuse for the blunder is tied to the disappearance of one of his closest lieutenants, who eventually resurfaces badly banged up and in the middle of a terrible murder scenario. A typical Montalbano procedural ensues, with the Inspector operating as a Lone Ranger in the investigation, frustrating his colleagues and boss. What keeps "The Dance..." from meeting the high standards earlier Montalbano stories is the overly convoluted motivations of the villains of the piece (Mafioso with a big secret, the Mafia itself and greedy others in league with Russians and Arab terrorists) and other exotica that are a little tough for the reader to wholly swallow.

Ultimately, Salvo catches the bad guys, covers his own weird tracks and settles down for a big plate of carponata. What's missing at the end is much resolution to his mid-life crisis and mending of his dented relations with friends and colleagues. You might say, "Who cares?--this is a crime novel". But the Montalbano stories are way beyond just crime stories. The characters count; and above all the character of the principal counts a great deal. The reader (OK, me) needs some reassurance that this guy is going to be alright in the end.

This is a very fine series--the writing and translation still shine in many important ways, I hope that there's some character evolution coming in future books. And I hope also that there will be many more of these books.

The great Inspector Montelbano is now 57 years old and is worrying about his age. He wakes at five thirty every morning and stares at the ceiling, bemoaning an earlier time when he slept through in one stretch. He has a much younger girl-friend and is keen to show her that he still has many of the attributes of a much younger man, but in reality, it is a bit of a struggle to keep up the pretence.

Of course, we now have an Italian television series Inspector Montelbano which makes appearances on British television with appropriate subtitles. Andrea Camilleri plays games with is readers by bringing this into the The Dance of the Seagull: at one stage his girl-friend Livia proposes a short break in the Val del Noto, but Montelbano refuses to go saying, "I wouldn't want to run into a film crew shooting an episode of that television series just as we're walking around there . . . They film them around there, you know."

The book opens with Inspector Montelbano opening his doors one morning and observing a seagull in it's death-throws. It lands on the beach and does a peculiar dance, turning round and round with it's beak turned up to the sky and then suddenly collapsing. It is a very unusual thing to see a bird die and Montelbano drives off to work unable to get the image of death out of his head.

When he arrives at the police station Montelbano immediately gets involved with a disappearance - his long-term detective partner Giuseppe Fazio has failed to turn up for work, and didn't go home the previous evening. Montelabano drives to the docks, the scene of Fazio's last known visit following a report of smuggling, and hears reports of shootings in the dead of night. One thing leads to another and Montelbano is soon on the trail of Detective Fazio, while not knowing whether he is dead or alive.

One of the charms of Andrea Camilleri's books is the bucketfuls of local colour - we read of Sicilian restaurants, the narrow streets teeming with people, the scenery (whether the blue seas of the coast or the arid inland regions, dangerous because of deep fissures in the rocks and ancient wells). It is to one of these inland regions that the trail of Fazio leads and Montelbano finds himself in some very dangerous situations as he discovers the gruesome remains of a body that had a terrible death.

The trail leads on via a beautiful seductress and the last members of a particularly vicious Mafia clan. There is plenty of excitement here, but what appeals to me the most is the character of the Inspector, someone who the author now inhabits like an old glove - his foibles and eccentricities on display throughout, together with a hard-boiled cynicism which prevents him from taking anything at face value. If ever there was a mature fictional character Montelbano is it.

Fantastic! I loved it. The life of Sicilian Chief Inspector Salvo Montalbano is never easy probably because he tells so many 'fibs' to people to cover up what is really happening he sometimes can't remember just what he has said. His merry band of men at the Police station in Vigata come to life and I would really advise anyone to start with book 1. All the stories will stand alone but to read them as they are meant to be read, in sequence, is the best way.

I was first introduced to Inspector Montalbano characters in the TV series on the BBC. I found out that they did the stories in book form and this is one of my favourites. It did not disappoint me in reading it after seeing the series on TV. Sometimes the book and the tv are different but this was very true to the series on tv and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it

I loved all of the stories. A little hard to get the gist of the background to the story sometimes on television because so much is left unsaid, but the characters come to life as you read them. I just love Cattarella!

I find Fazio to be one of the more endearing characters in the series and this novel created a good amount of suspense and intrigue. One of the better Montalbano novels.

This about the fifth of the Montalbano books which I have read and they never disappoint.

I am now going to see if I can find another which one which I haven,t read. I can,t wait.

I have now read all the inspector Montalbano books and will be waiting for the next one to be published. Just love these to bits.

Montalbano is on ‘his’ beach when he sees a seagull fall from the sky and die... and only he can make a connection between this event, the disappearance of his colleague Fazio, and a tangled mafiosa crime.

This is one of the more convoluted plots in this series with a crime which stretches outside of Sicily. Nevertheless, Camilleri keeps his various strands clear and gives us a new view of Montalbano: firstly distraught about Fazio, and then shockingly brutal, even if he is only acting.

This is a wonderful series but this isn’t a book to choose if you haven’t read at least some of the earlier ones. The tone here is much darker than, for example, August Heat, and Montalbano is even off his food on occasion! There is some lightening of the atmosphere with Camilleri’s trademark comedy, though, with some farcical swipes at Italian politics. Another great read.

I enjoy foreign detective stories, and was intrigued to read her books after watching the latest series on UK TV.