Reviews

De geur van de nacht by Andrea Camilleri

Only show reviews with written explanations

p_t_b's review against another edition

4.0

continuing to deliver the inspector montalbano brand essence which is:
- constant, horny thoughts about seafood
- answering the question "what if Elmore Leonard was weirder and italian and slightly more literary"

this one gets wild when montalbano's beloved, possibly clairvoyant olive tree gets chopped down by a guy building a condo ("new construction" is a glorious b-plot antagonist emerging in the last few of these). (also montalbano commits legit and hilarious property crimes to secure vengeance for his tree)
anyway the condo builder turns out to tie into this emerging plot about a bernie madoff type swindler, and then you can pretty much run the tape of the shtick from there. some unfortunate and backwards-looking ideas about women get thrown around but it's not like camelleri paints the male characters as less flawed and captive to bad ideas. this was written by like an 80 year old guy 20 some years ago. there is also curveball where the denouement involves montalbano hallucinating that he is living inside the william faulkner short story "a rose for emily"

all of these get 4 stars because they are wonderful and brainy but also dumb when needed and blessedly short

nikla88's review against another edition

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5.0

Non riesco a smettere di leggere i gialli di Camilleri, sono, ognuno a modo suo, originali, sprezzanti e moderni. Amo le similitiduni fra uno e l'altro, i personaggi che si delineano a poco a poco e Montalbano che cerca di tirare le fila e di arrivare al punto in cui gli scatta quella scintilla e risolve il caso. Anche in questo giallo come in molti altri, c'è una donna bellissima e intelligente che seduce il commissario e dal quale lui riesce comunque a sottrarsi. Questa, e altre cose simili, rendono il commissario ancora più umano e che rende il racconto più di un semplice giallo.

amuxl's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

mollyfiddler's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

beachybookstack's review against another edition

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5.0

Gargano--Vigáta's own Bernie Madoff. Didn't expect the ending though I had suspicions that this story wasn't over until there were more answers. Not much Livia in this one but that's alright with how moody Salvo has been about confronting his age & future.