I don't think I've raved about Andrea Camilleri before on this blog, although I have on a library blog that I used to contribute to. If you enjoy a detective story with a little more characterization than the average whodunnit, you will probably enjoy Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series. It's hard to describe these novels. They are set in Sicily, and are often very dark and very funny. Montalbano is a shrewd detective, who has to cope with Sicilian bureaucracy and bad guys and getting older. He likes to eat well, sleeps a lot and has woman trouble. I've read quite a few now, and they're all good. RAI (Italian TV) made a TV series of these books, and the BBC showed them subtitled in the UK. The books are translated from Italian, but don't let this put you off. Translations are often dull and stodgy, but in this case the author has been well served by his translator, Steven Sartarelli. Good holiday reading, entertaining but not mindless fluff.
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