An interesting view of Italian policing in a small town in Sicily. Entertaining. ( )

Excellent Montalbano 101
Review of the Penguin paperback edition (2016) [w/ 21 stories] translated primarily* from the Italian original Racconti di Montalbano (Stories of Montalbano) (2008) [w/ 18 stories]

I thoroughly enjoyed this career spanning collection of Inspector Montalbano stories which brings out all of the quirks of the sometimes cranky but always endearing Sicilian policeman and his small investigative force in the fictional town of Vigàta, Sicily (based on author Camilleri's home town of Porto Empedocle).

The background to the selection of the stories here is explained very well in Camilleri's excellent preface:

And, in fact, almost all of the stories collected here try to answer questions I had, or to settle bets I made with myself, or treat narrative problems I had set for myself.
I hardly intend to specify, story by story, the reasons for my choices, but, as the reader will already have gathered, there are two main threads: one that favors situations not specifically procedural, and one that, while treating material of a clearly procedural stamp, very often arrives at conclusions that underscore the inspector's humanity more than his rigor in seeing that the law is respected.

There is no exact Italian equivalent to this 2016 English language collection which consists of 21 stories, 20 of which have never been translated before. The exception is the title novella Montalbano's First Case which was translated earlier and published separately in 2013.

* The other 3 stories are:
The Artist's Touch from Un mese con Montalbano (A Month with Montalbano) (1998)
Catarella Solves a Case from Gli arancini di Montalbano (Montalbano's Rice Fritters) (1999)
and
Montalbano Afraid from La paura di Montalbano (Montalbano Afraid) (2002). ( )

A collection of 21 short stories and novellas at various points in Montalbano’s career. Just when this started is debateable; from internal evidence, I suspect some time in the 1960s. I much prefer his shorts to the longer works, including the title novella. I don’t know why, but I find Camilleri’s leisured style a bit grating in a crime novel, especially a police procedural. I like the stories and the settings, but the short stories work far better.

Montalbanos First Case & Other Stories

If you enjoy Andrea Camilleri’s detective Inspector Montalbano, then this book is for you, even if the stories will be familiar to those who have watched the TV series. This is also Camilleri’s personal anthology of those short stories, and all readers are treated to the rich prose and imagery that he uses, that is even better than the views one gets from the television series.

From Salvo’s first case when he had not yet been appointed to Vigata and was about to become the new Chief Inspector of the town. How he would have to learn about the two mafia crime families that were involved in the time and how he would have to keep his wits to keep the police on top and solve the crimes.

The wonderful thing about this book is the descriptions of the food, and his fondness especially for sea food which reoccur throughout the book. Then there is a whole short story, out of the 21 in the book that is called Rice Balls, which any lover of Montalbano means Adelina’s arancini. To tempt us further with the food there is a rough guide how to make said arancini. If only Camilleri wrote an additional book called the food of Montalbano stuffed full of the recipes I am sure it would be a best seller.

Throughout the book that humour and the excellent formula that Camilleri uses to blend Montalbano, his team and the people of Vigata together is evident, though because these are short stories cannot build on it as he usually does. All the team are here in the book and we even get to see Catarella Solve a case.

Altogether this is a fine collection of stories that all fans of Montalbano will enjoy, and recognise some of the stories, but that does not detract from the reader. Through the pages we get a richer flavour of Scilly if not the full pictorial views a TV episode can give us.

The stories in this anthology have been selected by Andrea Camilleri and gives a wonderful insight in to his famous character, how he developed and how he became the Inspector we all love. This really is a great read that you can read each story quite quickly and keep coming back to the book.

This really is a great book for all fans of Montalbano that you can dip in and out of and get maximum value. ( )

Excellent, although short stories don't allow character and plot development.
Have read and enjoyed all books in this series.
Bring on another Montalbano novel! ( )