Formulaic but always a joy. ( )

Short! Very short, Great though! We really enjoy this world. We get a lot of laughs and love puzzling out the mystery. Delicious food description always makes my mouth water. ( )

3.5*

I enjoyed this book but Montalbano's worries about getting older, while less in this one than the previous book, irritate me. Maybe because I am getting older myself!

As in some of the previous books, Montalbano has a dream at the beginning of the book. However, in this book, there are several times during the course of the story when he refers to it to others as if it had really happened which struck me as odd.

The mystery itself was satisfyingly complex. ( )

An enjoyable, but lighthearted read. When I finished, I was reminded of the Spenser series by Robert Parker. Formulaic, but there was a decent mystery, and a focus on good meals. Someone is working hard to misdirect Salvo Montalbano and his colleagues with anonymous tips. How are a couple of warehouse bombings and a dead set of lovers related? Of course, Montalbano has an attractive young woman to chase, his girlfriend Livia is away, but a bothersome nuisance nonetheless (like the Commissioner), and Catarella is butchering names and words worse than usual so all the characters are back. However, these characters are getting a bit stale -- some more character development would be refreshing. ( )

Bombs go off outside two empty warehouses. It's tied to the drug trade. There's a brutal murder and Salvo is suspected. ( )