August Heat is next for Montalbano

The next episode in this second run of Inspector Montalbano, at 9pm on 22 September, is August Flame, based on August Heat, the tenth in Camilleri's series (and one of my favourite books).

Inspector Montalbano discovers the existence of a secret underground dwelling beneath Mimi's family home and finds a trunk containing the dead body of a young woman who had disappeared six years earlier. As he begins his investigation, Montalbano makes the acquaintance of the victim's alluring twin sister.

August Heat - cover opinions

Andrea Camilleri's August Heat tr. Stephen Sartarelli is the final 2010 International Dagger contender to have its covers scrutinised as Badfellas has the same cover for both the US and UK editions. (Previous cover opinion posts can be found here).

So what are you thoughts on the US (LHS) and UK (RHS) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Andrea Camilleri?

Here is the Euro Crime review, by Maxine, of August Heat.



I like both styles of covers but I do feel the UK ones can give too much of the plot away.

More from August Heat

I posted the first page from Camilleri's August Heat (translated by Stephen Sartarelli) the other day. Here are a couple of quotes from later in the book:

[Montalbano] sat outside until eleven o'clock, reading a good detective novel by two Swedish authors who were husband and wife, in which there wasn't a page without a ferocious and justified attack on social democracy and the government. In his mind Montalbano dedicated the book to all those who did not deign to read mystery novels because, in their opinion, they were only entertaining puzzles.

Gaspare Micciche was a fortyish redhead who measured barely four feet eight inches tall. He had extremely long arms and bowed legs. He looked like a monkey. Surely Darwin, if he could have seen him, would have hugged him for joy.

(NB. Typed in from a proof of the US edition and may not represent the final version).

What I'm reading...August Heat

The US edition of Andrea Camilleri's tenth and latest Montalbano novel, August Heat, is now available. The UK edition will follow in June.

1

He was sleeping so soundly that not even cannon-fire could have woken him. Well, maybe not cannon-fire, but the ring of the telephone, yes.

Nowadays, if a man living in a civilized country (ha!) hears cannon-blasts in his sleep, he will, of course, mistake them for thunderclaps, gun salutes on the feast day of the local saint, or furniture being moved by the upstairs neighbours, and go on sleeping soundly. But the ring of the telephone, the triumphal march of the mobile, or the doorbell, no: those are sounds of summons to which the civilized man (ha-ha!) has no choice but to surface from the depths of slumber and answer.

So, Montalbano got out of bed, glanced at the clock, then at the window, from which he gathered that it was going to be a very hot day, and went into the dining room where the telephone was ringing wildly.

‘Salvo! Where were you? I’ve been trying to get hold of your for half an hour!’

‘I’m sorry, Livia. I was in the shower so I couldn’t hear the phone.’

First lie of the day.

Read more of the extract from the UK edition at the PanMacmillan site. Interestingly my American proof copy not only has "cell" for "mobile", which is to be expected, but also "slime-buckets living upstairs" for "upstairs neighbours". I wonder if the final US version has the slime-buckets comment?