The Pyramid of Mud

By Andrea Camilleri

Book Overview

"You either love Andrea Camilleri or you haven't read him yet. Each novel in this wholly addictive, entirely magical series, set in Sicily and starring a detective unlike any other in crime fiction, blasts the brain like a shot of pure oxygen...transporting. Long live Camilleri, and long live Montalbano." --A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window Inspector Montalbano uncovers corruption and mafia ties in the world of construction and contracts On a gloomy morning in Vig ta, a call from Fazio rouses Inspector Montalbano from a nightmare. A man called Giugi Nicotra has been found dead in the skeletal workings of a construction site, a place now entombed by a sea of mud from recent days of rain and floods. Shot in the back, he had fled into a water supply system tunnel. The investigation gets off to a slow start, but all the evidence points to the world of construction and public contracts, a world just as slimy and impenetrable as mud. As he wades through a world in which construction firms and public officials thrive, Montalbano is obsessed by one thought: that by going to die in the tunnel, Nicotra had been trying to communicate something.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143128086
• ISBN13: 9780143128083
• Release Date: January 2018
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

The series' best days ended several books ago :(

I know Montalbano is aging, but the energy seems to have ebbed out of the series with the passing of years. Completists will of course want to check off the box labeled book #22. Montalbano still is a fairly interesting fellow to trail around the island, breathing in the gritty, semi-rural atmosphere of Sicily, so a newcomer to the series would find enough of interest. But for that newcomer, I would instead recommend starting from the beginning. If they enjoy what they read in 'The Shape of Water,' I would recommend continuing in order, reading up to number 13 or 14, plus the short stories about Montalbano--not beyond that. The early stories are chronological, building on characters and events introduced in prior installments but not continuing previous stories--it is possible to read them out of order but it improves the experience to read them in order. As the series continues beyond book 14 ('The Age of Doubt'), installments feel nebulous and suspended in a sort of generic time, with less reference to what came before. It loses something.