The Sicilian Method

By: Andrea Camilleri

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

In the new novel in the transporting New York Times best-selling Inspector Montalbano mystery series, Montalbano finds his answers to a murder in a theatrical play

Mimi Augello is visiting his lover when the woman’s husband unexpectedly returns to the apartment; he climbs out the window and into the downstairs apartment, but one danger leads to another. In the dark he sees a body lying on the bed. Shortly after, another body is found, and the victim is Carmelo Catalanotti, a director of bourgeois dramas with a harsh reputation for the acting method he developed for his actors.

Are the two deaths connected? Catalanotti scrupulously kept notes and comments on all the actors he worked with, as well as strange notebooks full of figures and dates and names. Inspector Montalbano finds all of Catalanotti’s dossiers and plays, the notes on the characters, and the notes on his last drama, Dangerous Corner - the theater is where he’ll find the answer.

©2017 Sellerio Editore. Translation © 2020 by Stephen Sartarelli (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Way Out There

This work may be appealing for a cult following who identifies with the protagonist and his quirky habits, but it wasn’t appealing to me. I was hoping for an engaging mystery with a set of complex characters, but instead I powered on through the immature & blundering inspector’s ridiculous habits/affair at 1.5x speed to get the story over with. The conclusion of the mystery was not nearly as revelatory or satisfying as I was hoping for, given the detective story setting. This story is not a keeper.

The narrator was alright, though.

Tiresome

I thought Montalbano was over his womanizing and was settled with Livia. I don’t think I want to finish this series even after I’ve invested in 26 books.

Non Italian Reader

I watched this series on T.V. and I loved it. I can’t figure out why a person who is Italian or familiar with the language wasn’t chosen to read this book. What a disappointment this was to listen to. It was so flat. I’m sure if the author was still alive he would feel the same.

interesting plot

Made me sad to read. Dont want to give away anything about the story which is as intelligent a plot as ever with characters as charming.

Especially good mystery, suspenseful, moving

Liked Montalbano's feelings, romantic interactions; especially good mystery, suspenseful. Montalbano's romantic relations were more complex than usual.

Another wonderful mystery

This English translation in audio has been issued after Camilleri's death, but the stories live on as Montalbano suffers a midlife crisis and Augello keeps tomcatting around, Fazio remains efficient, and Catarella remains dyslexic. This time there is one corpse that disappears before it can be investigated and another one appears that is eerily similar. But the existent corpse belongs to a very complex man who engenders more suspects than most. Well done, as always!
Thanks again to Stephen Sartarelli for his great translations and to
Grover Gardner for his always interesting narrations.

The Stories Begin to End

I thought I only had one Montalbano book to go, but I found a few more and some other books by Andrea Camilleri, which was great. In "The Sicilian Method," a sixty-year-old Montalbano faces changes in life and an interesting case, but the way Camilleri deals with Montalbano's aging is poetry and natural. That's what I like best about this one.