Nella nuova indagine di Montalbano Camilleri inventa storie e personaggi e li fa recitare fra le quinte di un teatro di cui è lui il regista. Una messinscena che è dramma e commedia insieme.

I very much enjoyed this late entry in the Montalbano series. Montalbano's colleague, Mimi Augello, is not one of my favorite characters (for many reasons that I could go on about but won't!) but he is great in this one.

I also found the developments in Montalbano's personal life interesting!

I listened to the digital audiobook (not this CD edition). ( )

Three crimes/stories, another love affair for the aging Inspector, and lots of sumptuous means (some prepared by his housekeeper, some by Enzo, and some in other restaurants.) The main story concerns the director of an amateur theater, who is stabbed through the heart. He has a highly unorthodox method of casting roles. He also has an illegal, unregulated moneylending business, and a regular female dinner companion so readers and the police are never sure who killed him. There are two lesser stories: one involving detective Mimi Augello, who happens upon a corpse while fleeing the husband of a dalliance, and another involving a young man, shot in the leg, who claims not to have seen his assailant. His love affair, with a consulting forensics, has him re-evaluating his life and long distance relationship with his longtime girlfriend, Livia. Satisfying, but nothing very new in this one. ( )

Typical Montalbano "mystery", with apparent murder, new love, and meandering investigation. Ending is a semi-romantic cliff hanger, leaving the future unclear - especially as Camilleri is deceased. ( )

When Mimi Augello is forced to flee his paramour’s bedroom as her husband unexpectedly arrives, he runs into an adjacent apartment, only to discover the body of a man there! He can’t just report the find, given his situation at the time, but while discussing it with Inspector Montalbano, they learn that *another* body has been found in the same situation but a different location. This is Carmelo Catalanotti, a local theater director known for his extreme methods of choosing his actors. Now the team has two investigations to make, which is complicated by the disappearance of the first body; even more complicating for Montalbano is the sudden arrival of Antonia Nicoletti, the new chief of forensics…. Although Mr. Camilleri died some years ago, there are still apparently two more Montalbano novels to come after this one, which is welcome news indeed. Here, the cases the detectives are investigating are quite byzantine, but the “complication” arising in Montalbano’s personal life (again) just seems like the fantasies of an aging man. I’ve complained about that feature of this series before, and it’s even more apparent in this entry; that said, I still love the characters, setting and investigations, and will therefore continue to recommend this series heartily. Just start at the beginning, please! ( )