They tell me that Camilleri is the author of best-sellers, but I was skeptical to say the least, since this book is a translation of the Italian original, and I think translations may not quite agree with me. It took a while to get into the book; there were many, many characters all of whom had similar sounding names. But, primarily there’s Inspector Salvo Montalbano, and his officers : Fazio, Gallo, Galluzo and Mimi Augello.

In this book, Montalbano, who lives in a house on the beach finds a dead horse in front of his home. Worse, the horse appears to have been murdered brutally. After making a cursory inspection, when Montalbano goes to get his officers out so they can make a thorough investigation, the carcass disappears.In the next couple of days 2 people file police reports about missing horses – one is a famous equestrian Rachel Esterman, and the second is  one of the richest men in Italy Saverio Lo Duca. Then, as Montalbano ponders the mystery, his home is broken into. Not much is taken, so Montalbano realises that this is a warning; (and to put it pun-nily)someone desperately wants him off the horse’s tail . . .

Now, I wasn’t very enthused about Montalbano in the beginning, but the character grew on me as the book progressed, and it progressed pretty quickly because this is a slim volume. Montalbano is 56, and has beautiful women throwing themselves at him. He is also mightily quirky, loves his food and is averse to spending his hard-earned money on as he puts it “a sea of assholes”. LOL, that has a nice ring to it; a sea of assholes.

Salvo also doesn’t quite get socializing :

“The prospect of the dinner, the people whose conversation he would have to listen to, the muck that would likely be served and that he would have to swallow even if it made him puke . . .”

and has a wry sense of humor, which comes through in some interesting descriptions :

“He looked to be at least ninety-nine years old and, indeed, was leaning on a sort of shepherd’s crook to keep from collapsing. . . .Armando grabbed the near-weightless bag with one hand, but still it made him list to that side”

Montalbano is also quick-thinking and wily, and the reason why I would read the other books in the series.  The events in this book move fast, and the almost benign mystery of two missing horses turns into something more sinister as Montalbano gets deeper into his investigation. The translation has some peculiar turns of phrase (eg. setting fire to a cigarette) but the flavor of the original book and it’s feisty people comes through even in this.

I quite enjoyed this “The track of sand”. Recommended.