The Potter's Field: An Inspector Montalbano Novel 13

Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE CWA INTERNATIONAL DAGGER AWARD 2012 Now a major BBC4 television series From the Italian crime legend, Andrea Camilleri, comes The Potter's Field, a dark mystery featuring the inimitable Inspector Montalbano. While Vigàta is wracked by storms, Inspector Montalbano is called to attend the discovery of a dismembered body in a field of clay. Bearing all the marks of an execution style killing, it seems clear that this is, once again, the work of the notorious local mafia. But who is the victim? Why was the body divided into thirty pieces? And what is the significance of the Potter's Field? Working to decipher these clues, Montalbano must also confront the strange and difficult behaviour exhibited by his old colleague Mimi, and avoid the distraction of the enchanting Dolores Alfano - who seeks the inspector's help in locating her missing husband. But like the Potter's Field itself, Montalbano is on treacherous ground and only one thing is certain - nothing is quite as it seems . . . The Potter's Field is followed by The Age of Doubt, the fourteenth in the series. PRAISE FOR THE SERIES "A magnificent series of novels" Sunday Times "There's a deliciously playful quality to the mysteries Andrea Camilleri writes about a lusty Sicilian police detective named Salvo Montalbano." New York Times Book Review "Camilleri as crafty and charming a writer as his protagonist is an investigator." The Washington Post "The books are full of sharp, precise characterizations and with subplots that make Montalbano endearingly human ... Like the antipasti that Montalbano contentedly consumes, the stories are light and easily consumed, leaving one eager for the next course." New York Journal of Books "This series is distinguished by Camilleri's remarkable feel for tragicomedy, expertly mixing light and dark in the course of producing novels that are both comforting and disturbing." Booklist