The Cook of the Halcyon - (Inspector Montalbano Mystery) by Andrea Camilleri (Paperback)

About the Book

"Two deaths, the suicide a newly laid-off worker and an unscrupulous businessman found murdered, leads Inspector Montalbano to inspect the Halcyon, a nearly abandoned mysterious ship with no passengers."--

Book Synopsis

The new novel in the transporting New York Times bestselling Inspector Montalbano mystery series

Giovanni Trincanato has brought ruin to the shipyard he inherited from his father and when a worker he fires hangs himself on the construction site, Inspector Montalbano is called to the scene. In short order, the inspector loses his temper with the crass Giovanni, delivers a slap to his face, and unfortunately, it won't be the last he sees of Trincanato. Meanwhile, a mysterious schooner called Halcyon shows up in the harbor, seemingly deserted except for just one man. With its presence comes even more mysteries, another death, and the arrival of the FBI. Alongside Sicilian-American Agent Pennisi, Montalbano and his team must attempt a suspenseful infiltration operation in this new, page-turning Inspector Montalbano mystery.

Review Quotes

"You either love Andrea Camilleri or you haven't read him yet. Each novel in this wholly addictive, entirely magical series, set in Sicily and starring a detective unlike any other in crime fiction, blasts the brain like a shot of pure oxygen. Aglow with local color, packed with flint-dry wit, as fresh and clean as Mediterranean seafood -- altogether transporting. Long live Camilleri, and long live Montalbano." --A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

"The idiosyncratic Montalbano is totally endearing." --The New York Times

"Camilleri is as crafty and charming a writer as his protagonist is an investigator." --The Washington Post Book World

"Hailing from the land of Umberto Eco and La Cosa Nostra, Montalbano can discuss a pointy-headed book like Western Attitudes Toward Death as unflinchingly as he can pore over crime-scene snuff photos. He throws together an extemporaneous lunch of shrimp with lemon and oil as gracefully as he dodges advances from attractive women." --Los Angeles Times

"Like Mike Hammer or Sam Spade, Montalbano is the kind of guy who can't stay out of trouble. . . . Still, deftly and lovingly translated by Stephen Sartarelli, Camilleri makes it abundantly clear that under the gruff, sardonic exterior our inspector has a heart of gold, and that any outburst, fumbles, or threats are made only in the name of pursuing truth." --The Nation

"Camilleri can do a character's whole backstory in half a paragraph." --The New Yorker

"Subtle, sardonic, and molto simpatico Montalbano is the Latin re-creation of Philip Marlowe, working in a place that manages to be both more and less civilized than Chandler's Los Angeles." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"The novels of Andrea Camilleri breathe out the sense of place, the sense of humor, and the sense of despair that fills the air of Sicily." --Donna Leon

About the Author

Andrea Camilleri, a mega-bestseller in Italy and Germany, is the author of the New York Times bestselling Inspector Montalbano mystery series as well as historical novels that take place in nineteenth-century Sicily. His books have been made into Italian TV shows and translated into thirty-two languages. His thirteenth Montalbano novel, The Potter's Field, won the Crime Writers' Association International Dagger Award and was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. He died in 2019.

Stephen Sartarelli is an award-winning translator and the author of three books of poetry.