A Nest of Vipers by Andrea Camilleri
Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)
The 21st mystery starring Inspector Salvo Montalbano is set in the small town of Vigata, Sicily in 2008. Wealthy businessman Cosimo Barletta is found dead of a shot to the head. He has been ushered from this vale of tears by two culprits.
We know this because when cranky Medical Examiner Pasquano did the autopsy, he found that Barletta was killed with a paralyzing potion put in his Sunday morning coffee. Frozen in his kitchen chair, he was then shot from behind, presumably by a second party that didn’t realize Barletta was already hoisting a glass of marsala with his ancestors.
Montalbano has his two subordinates, Fazio and Augello, investigate Barletta and his background. The signor was a businessman with sharp elbows and no ethics, not above a lucrative loan sharking racket that deprived victims of their businesses, marriages, and sanity. Barletta paid for a good time but also lured young girls into affairs with money and presents. He also coerced them with pictures of them in compromising positions. Barletta’s son Arturo and daughter Giovanna are chips off the old block, because both cast aspersions on the other in the dispute over Barletta’s will, which has gone missing.
This is definitely not the strongest blend of mystery, comedy and drama that Camilleri has produced in this long-running series (see The Voice of the Violin or The Potter’s Field). It is fairly easy to figure out who is behind the murders. In his middle fifties, Montalbano is getting slow-witted and easily distracted, but he gets to the bottom of things in the fullness of time. I wonder if the reader being able to figure out whodunit before the hero is part of Camilleri’s trickeries – he’s a tricky novelist first, a mystery writer second.
But reading a Montalbano story is like settling down into a familiar sofa. The tale mixes scenes of the silly comedy and sharp wit with a harsh drama of family dysfunction. At work, we meet the usual parade of ladies man Augello, detail-obsessed Fazio, bumbling Catarella, and twisted prosecutor Tommaseo. Salvo’s GF Livia shows up from Genoa and Montalbano clashes with her over a mysterious hobo who lives in a cave near Salvo’s beach front house.
For foodies, the culinary excursions at Enzo’s trattoria and warm-up meals by housekeeper Adelina at home on the terrace when the weather is nice add to the usual beautiful atmosphere of Sicily. The nostalgia of home cooking takes some of the heaviness of the story away.
