“Death at Sea: Montalbano’s Early Cases” is a group of eight stories featuring Camilleri’s amazing Sicilian detective, Salvo Montalbano. These include “Room Number 2,” in which arson is a crime of passion; “Double Investigation,” where it’s unclear who is the victim; “Death at Sea,” which involves just that; “The Stolen Message,” wherein a young barmaid disappears; “The Transaction,” describing how two mafiosa families do business with each other; “Standard Procedure,” which depicts corruption in high places; “The Apricot,” in which an accident isn’t as it appears; and “The Honest Thief,” which is just as the title says. Of these eight, a few are annoyingly misogynistic, although I’m used to that from this series; one, “The Transaction,” is worth the price of the whole book by itself, because it features Adelina’s initial antipathy toward Livia *and* mentions Salvo’s father (a first, as far as I recall). This book was published in translation in 2018 (the original Italian in 2014), but I was unable to find any information with respect to whether or where the stories might have originally been published; they’re mostly set in the 1980s, but I have no idea if they were written then! In any event, the volume serves both as a nice post-prandial snack for those who know the series and as a handy introduction to those who do not. Recommended! ( )

Short stories from Inspector Montalbano's earlier life. Light fare in these eight vignettes, with crimes as disparate as arson, murder, burglary, kidnapping, snuff films, drug smuggling, and loansharking. Personally, I'd rather have read the next novel. ( )

This is a collection of several short detective story. Very enjoyable, catcher the Italian culture very well. ( )

Eight Short Stories featuring Inspector Montalbano and his early cases.

1. "Room Number 2": An explosion rocks a hotel. Room number 2 was occupied, but as all the guests come down stairs to be accounted for, one is missing and no corpse to be found.

2. "Double Investigation": A woman who gives her husband a weekly allowance for gambling disappears... her body is later found. in a dump, perfectly laid out. Montalbano & Mimi are shot at, the two major families send regrets.

3. "Death at Sea": A fisherman is shot dead while in the hold. Law states No Guns allowed on fishing boast, but everyone was armed & all guns disappear. Why does the fishing boat need wet suits ,cable cutters, & guns?

4. "The Stolen Message": Pamela, the cashier/waitress at the local cafe disappears, she is later found dead. Pamela changed boyfriends weekly & had quite the collection of jewelery, which disappeared with her, she also kept meticulous notes in her day planner.... Someone, however wasn't happy & felt threatened... But Pamela was discreet if nothing else & happy with her gains. Why would she be murdered?

5. "The Transaction": A local grocery store & barber Shop have gone out-of-business. In place of the barber Shop is a new "Farmers'" Bank (but this is the sea side) and there are 100 safe deposit boxes (all rented out), more than any other bank... Somehow all 100 of the boxes are robbed. The bank manager's daughter is married to a family capo, whose sister is married to the family's lawyer.... Something smells, and it isn't the remnants of Barber Shop Cologne.

6. "Standard Procedure": A young woman is found dead in front of an apartment building, where she ran for safety... Her corpse is bruised & cut. Leading to the discovery of a sadistic group of men, all high up in the government... Montalbano sends the evidence to the DA, as is standard procedure, but the evidence somehow gets stolen, as is also standard procedure...

7. "The Apricot": A young woman, known for stopping at a local fruit stand & eating fruit on her way home, is found over the edge of a cliff by Montalbano & Livia... Few odd things: the wheels of the car are still spinning; the car had a very short trajectory & landing; an apricot pit is found in her throat, but she was highly allergic to apricots; and her coral necklace is missing.

8. "The Honest Thief": Someone is robbing the neighborhood, but never taking more than 1,000 lira of what is there and leaving the rest, unless the person is very well off. The thief comes in at night while people are asleep & they never notice a thing. He & Montalbano join up to bring a kidnapper to justice.

I so very much enjoyed these stories, even Montalbano's girlfriend Livia wasn't as difficult as usual. The stories all has a nice twist & subtle humor. ( )

short-stories, series, law-enforcement, Sicily, murder-investigation

Camilleri does great short stories!
Each is pretty much independent of the others except for the continuing characters, and even if a reader has been deprived of other Montalbano books there would be no problem with enjoyment.
Thanks be for the translation by Steven Sartarelli and audio interpretation by Grover Gardner! ( )