TV News w/c 7 Feb 2016

Lots of exciting new programmes this week on the BBC (and the return tonight of the X-Files on Channel 5!).

If you missed it last night, you can catch up with Montalbano and Me: Andrea Camilleri on iPlayer.

An intimate portrait of the man behind Inspector Montalbano, as acclaimed Italian novelist Andrea Camilleri gives us access to the man himself, his work and personal history.

Camilleri shares the name and beginning of what will be the final Montalbano novel which he wrote when he was 80 - worried that Alzheimer's would strike. [He is still writing new ones.] The interviewer notes how all the Montalbanos are the same length and Camilleri explains that it is deliberate. There is a brief interview with Luca Zingaretti and how he got the job of playing Montalbano.

Tomorrow night sees the return of Happy Valley at 9pm on BBC One:

Eighteen months have passed, and Catherine is spinning plates at work and at home, where Ryan approaches his tenth birthday. Tommy, serving a life sentence in a high-security prison, finds a way of keeping a watchful eye over Ryan from behind bars, while Catherine becomes a murder suspect after finding a dead body.

and lastly on Saturday, on BBC Four from 9pm, the first two of the ten episodes of Icelandic drama, Trapped:

In a small Icelandic fishing port, a ferry docks. That same day a dismembered body is found in the river, sparking an investigation and a call to Reykjavik for detective reinforcements to assist the small local police force. With the ferry held in dock and a bad snowstorm threatening to cut off the town, chief of police Andri is under pressure to deliver results quickly.

New Reviews: Brett, Camilleri, Connor, Griffiths, James, Robertson, Russell, Webster, Zeh

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, four have appeared on the blog over the last couple of weeks and five are completely new.

Plus a new competition - win an iBook of Invisible by Christine Poulson (no geographical restrictions).


NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Mark Bailey reviews the new Charles Paris mystery from Simon Brett, The Cinderella Killer;

I review the Judges anthology, which contains stories by Andrea Camilleri, Carlo Lucarelli and Giancarlo De Cataldo (tr. Joseph Farrell, Alan Thawley and Eileen Horne);

Amanda Gillies reviews The Caravaggio Conspiracy by Alex Connor;

Michelle Peckham reviews the latest in Elly Griffiths's Norfolk-based Ruth Galloway series, The Outcast Dead;

Geoff Jones reviews Want You Dead, the tenth in Peter James's Roy Grace series;

Terry Halligan reviews Craig Robertson's The Last Refuge, set in the Faroe Islands;

Amanda also reviews Fatal Act by Leigh Russell, the latest in her DI Geraldine Steel series;

Lynn Harvey reviews Jason Webster's Blood Med, set in Valencia

and Laura Root reviews Juli Zeh's Decompression tr. John Cullen which is set in Lanzarote.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

Review: Judges - Camilleri, Lucarelli & De Cataldo

Judges by Andrea Camilleri, Carlo Lucarelli and Giancarlo De Cataldo, translated by Joseph Farrell, Alan Thawley and Eileen Horne, May 2014, 165 pages, MacLehose Press, ISBN: 0857052977

JUDGES is a collection of three short stories from three of Italy's top crime writers. The collection was first published in Italian in 2011 and in all three stories, the judge is fighting against a corrupt establishment.

The first story is Andrea Camilleri's Judge Surra, which has been shortlisted for this year's CWA Short Story Dagger, and like his Montalbano series, is set in Sicily but around a hundred years earlier. This is an amusing tale of how the judge unwittingly brings down a mafia boss whilst discovering the local delicacy of cannoli pastries.

The second story is Carlo Lucarelli's The Bambina, set in Bologna in 1980 at a time when judges needed protection from the police. The judge in this case is a young woman, nick-named Bambina who is assigned an older policeman. She's prosecuting a fraud case and doesn't think she requires a bodyguard however she is soon proved wrong and she finds a different way of meting out justice.

The final story is Giancarlo De Cataldo's The Triple Dream of the Prosecutor, set in modern day and the main protagonist, Mandati, is a public prosecutor in a small town who is trying to bring down the mayor, a rival from childhood, and who has his fingers in all the financial pies. The mayor usually thwarts Mandati but will he this time?

Each story covers a similar theme but are all very different in approach and time-frame and the high standard does make you wish that more of Lucarelli's and De Cataldo's books were available in English. All three authors have recently had tv series shown in the UK: Montalbano, Inspector De Luca and Romanzo Criminale, so one can hope.

More short stories from these three authors can be read in the excellent anthology, CRIMINI.

The stories were translated respectively by Joseph Farrell, Alan Thawley and Eileen Horne.

New Reviews: Blackmore, Camilleri, George, Huber, Leonard, Rickman, Rowson, Vichi, Wilkinson

This week's set of reviews, added to Euro Crime today, is a mixture of new reviews and a catch-up of those posted directly on the blog in the last two weeks, so you may have read some of them before if you're a regular :).

Keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Amanda Gillies reviews Alex Blackmore's debut, Lethal Profit, a thriller set in Paris;

I review Andrea Camilleri's latest Montalbano, translated by Stephen Sartarelli, The Treasure Hunt;

Terry Halligan reviews the new Lynley novel from Elizabeth George, Just One Evil Act;

Susan White reviews Linda Huber's debut, The Paradise Trees, a psychological thriller;

Laura Root reviews Peter Leonard's Back from the Dead, the sequel to Voices of the Dead;

Lynn Harvey reviews Phil Rickman's The Heresy of Dr Dee, now out in paperback;

Terry also reviews Death Surge by Pauline Rowson, the latest in her DI Andy Horton series set around the Solent;

Completing the set of reviews for Marco Vichi's first four Bordelli novels, is Michelle Peckham's review of Death and the Olive Grove, tr. Stephen Sartarelli, which is the second in the series

and Amanda also reviews Playing with Fire by Kerry Wilkinson, the fifth in the DS Jessica Daniel series set in Manchester.


Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

Review: The Treasure Hunt by Andrea Camilleri tr. Stephen Sartarelli

The Treasure Hunt by Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli, September 2013, 224 pages, Mantle, ISBN: 1447228782

THE TREASURE HUNT is the latest in the Inspector Montalbano series and opens with a dramatic set piece which sees Salvo shinning up a fireman's ladder to break into a apartment to prevent an elderly pair of devout siblings from shooting people. The apartment is quite disturbing with a roomful of crucifixes and a much repaired blow-up doll in the brother's room.

Matters then calm down in Vigata, - with the exception of a mysterious second blow-up doll being found - there is very little crime, a reason for which is suggested by Catarella and reported to Montalbano by Fazio:

“He says that the robbers, the local ones, who rob the homes of working poor or snatch women's purses, are ashamed.”

“Of what?”

“Of their big-time colleagues. The CEOs who drive their companies to bankruptcy after making off with people's savings, the banks who are always finding a way to screw their customers, the big companies that steal public funds. Whereas they, the petty thieves who have to do with ten euros or a broken TV or a computer that doesn't work...they feel ashamed and don't feel like stealing anymore.”

But then Salvo receives an anonymous note pushed under his door, a riddle, a “treasure hunt”. More notes follow and Salvo solves them and visits nearby places. In addition Salvo's long-time friend Ingrid sends a student Salvo's way as the boy wants to see how Salvo's mind works when he solves a case, so Salvo gives him the notes. The treasure hunt keeps Salvo busy until a proper crime occurs: a young woman is kidnapped.

The tone of THE TREASURE HUNT is quite light for about two-thirds of the book. It had me chuckling away - lots of banter between Mimi and Salvo - but then after the kidnapping it gets serious and indeed there is a very unpleasant scene described. As usual there is much to like about this latest Montalbano book it's funny, there's political commentary and an intriguing adversary however the ending was marred for me by its darkness, which not only jars with the tone of the rest of the book, but is probably the nastiest in the whole series to date.

TV News: Inspector Montalbano and a Ray of Light

The fourth and final episode in the latest series of Inspector Montalbano is A Ray of Light on Saturday 9nd November at 9pm on BBC Four:

A woman is attacked and robbed on her way home late at night, but the case leaves Montalbano wondering whether there isn't more to the story than he's being told. An abandoned cattle shed in the countryside has been boarded up by unknowns and used for mysterious purposes.

A Ray of Light is based on Andrea Camilleri's nineteenth Montalbano novel, Una lama di luce, which has not yet been translated into English. It was published in Italy in 2012.

The following Saturday sees the Return of Borgen.

TV News: Inspector Montalbano & the Hall of Mirrors

The second episode of the latest series of Inspector Montalbano (with Luca Zingaretti) is Hall of Mirrors on Saturday 26th October at 9pm on BBC Four:

A bomb goes off outside an empty store-room in a quiet Vigata street. Montalbano commences his investigation, but is soon disorientated by a series of disparate events, including the acquaintance of an attractive and mysterious woman

Hall of Mirrors is based on Andrea Camilleri's eighteenth Montalbano novel, Il gioco degli specchi, which has not yet been translated into English. The title comes from the film Lady from Shanghai.

TV News: Ol' Salvo's back in Town (ie the return of Inspector Montalbano)

Inspector Montalbano (with Luca Zingaretti) returns to BBC Four on Saturday 19th October at 9pm with the first of four episodes (from 2013):

Angelica's Smile

A series of burglaries takes place at the houses of wealthy Vigata residents. One of the victims is a beguiling young bank manager called Angelica, to whom Salvo finds he is soon attracted. As the investigation progresses, Montalbano starts to suspect that the burglaries might be a cover for something rather more sinister.

Angelica's Smile is based on Andrea Camilleri's seventeenth Montalbano novel, Il sorriso di Angelica, which is the next book to appear in English in June 2014 in both the US and the UK. At the rate I'm watching these I will have read the book first! But as the saying goes, one can never be too rich, too thin ... or have too much Montalbano (whatever his age).

TV News: Young Montalbano Ep.6 Seven Mondays

The final part of the six-episode run of Young Montalbano - Seven Mondays - is on Saturday 12 October at 9pm on BBC Four.

As Livia and Salvo prepare to go on their first holiday together, Vigata is shaken by the murder of a rich old man. Meanwhile, a series of strange occurrences takes place involving the shooting of a number of animals at the hands of an elusive gunman. With little evidence to go on, Montalbano and his team struggle to understand the logic behind the animal killings and fear that the worst may be yet to come.

The series is co-written by Andrea Camilleri and Francesco Bruni with the stories drawn from several short story collections.

According to Wikipedia a second series will begin shooting in late 2013.

TV News: Young Montalbano Ep.5 The Third Secret

The fifth part of the six-episode run of Young Montalbano - The Third Secret - is on Saturday 5 October at 9pm on BBC Four.

Montalbano receives an anonymous note predicting the death of a local construction worker, only to realise that the note has been delivered too late. Meanwhile, the public notice board announcing the town's forthcoming weddings is stolen. What at first appears to be an innocent prank gradually turns out to have more sinister overtones. Carmine Fazio's young son Giuseppe joins the investigating team following his father's retirement, but there are minor clashes between the enthusiastic new recruit and his boss.

The series is co-written by Andrea Camilleri and Francesco Bruni with the stories drawn from several short story collections.

TV News: Young Montalbano Ep.4 Mortally Wounded

The fourth part of the six-episode run of Young Montalbano - Mortally Wounded - is on Saturday 28 September at 9pm on BBC Four.

Some unusual posters appear around Vigata in which the moral status of one of its female inhabitants is questioned. This soon becomes the talk of the town and Montalbano finds himself attempting to navigate the local gossip and resulting squabbles. But a murder forces more serious events onto the agenda, as Montalbano investigates the private and business life of the victim, uncovering a string of unsavoury facts in the process. Fazio returns to Vigata police station asking to be reinstated in his job following a bout of serious ill health. Salvo's father makes the acquaintance of new girlfriend Livia.

The series is co-written by Andrea Camilleri and Francesco Bruni with the stories drawn from several short story collections.

TV News: Back to Basics for Young Montalbano

The third part of the six-episode run of Young Montalbano - Back to Basics - is on Saturday 21 September at 9pm on BBC Four.

Just as he's starting to settle into his new job, Montalbano is surprised, and somewhat irked, by the unexpected arrival of the new deputy inspector, Mimi' Augello. The two soon find that their personalities are as alike as chalk and cheese. Together, they investigate the kidnapping of a young child and make the acquaintance of a beautiful Genoese architect, Livia Burlando. A rivalry immediately ensues for the girl's attentions.

The series is co-written by Andrea Camilleri and Francesco Bruni with the stories drawn from several short story collections.

TV News: Next on Young Montalbano

Young Montalbano which started last Saturday appears to have been well received [I am of course still on the classic series of Inspector Montalbano and cannot comment yet!]. The second part of the six-episode run is New Year's Eve, and is on Saturday 14 September at 9pm on BBC Four.

A man is shot dead in his hotel room on New Year's Eve, so Montalbano spends his first New Year's Day in Vigata investigating a murder. The case presents several unusual conundrums, not least the fact that the victim was co-owner of the hotel.

The series is co-written by Andrea Camilleri and Francesco Bruni with the stories drawn from several short story collections.

TV News: Young Montalbano on BBC Four

Young Montalbano is a six-part series, with Michele Riondino as Montalbano. The first episode, on Saturday 7 September at 9pm on BBC Four, is The First Case:

Young detective Salvo Montalbano is posted to a remote village in the Sicilian mountains, where he struggles to adapt to the somewhat unwelcoming climate, but a promotion and transfer bring him to the more agreeable seaside town of Vigata. Here he finds himself supervising a team of local policemen, including veteran Carmine Fazio and affable but bumbling agent Catarella. Montalbano's first case in Vigata involves investigating an attempted murder at the hands of a vulnerable young woman whose motives appear unfathomable.

The series is co-written by Andrea Camilleri and Francesco Bruni with the stories drawn from several short story collections.

New Reviews: Camilleri, Cleeves, Haynes, Kernick, Lipska, MacLean, Roberts, Sherriff, Templeton

Win Where the Devil Can't Go by Anya Lipska (UK only)






Nine new reviews have been added to Euro Crime today:


I review Andrea Camilleri's The Dance of the Seagull tr. Stephen Sartarelli, the fifteenth in this charming series;



Lynn Harvey reviews Dead Water by Ann Cleeves, the fifth in the (recently televised) Shetland series;


Amanda Gillies reviews Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes, writing that her work "goes from strength to strength";
 

Terry Halligan reviews Simon Kernick's Ultimatum, the sequel to Siege;

Rich Westwood reviews this month's competition prize, Where the Devil Can't Go by Anya Lipska, and he's looking forward to the sequel;


Geoff Jones reviews S G MacLean's The Devil's Recruit, the fourth in her Alexander Seaton series set in seventeenth century Aberdeen;

Susan White reviews Mark Roberts's debut The Sixth Soul and found it "quite compelling";

Terry also reviews The Wells of St Mary's by R C Sherriff, now available as an ebook or POD, Terry says it was "much appreciated entertainment at the end of a hard day"

and Michelle Peckham reviews Evil for Evil by Aline Templeton, concluding that "Aline Templeton's books featuring Marjory Fleming keep improving with each new outing".




Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

Review: The Dance of the Seagull by Andrea Camilleri

The Dance of the Seagull by Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli, March 2013, 224 pages, Mantle, ISBN: 1447228715

THE DANCE OF THE SEAGULL is the fifteenth outing for Sicilian Inspector Montalbano and whereas the CWA-Award winning THE POTTER'S FIELD was about Montalbano's relationship with his deputy, Mimi Augello, SEAGULL highlights his relationship with his colleague Fazio.

Montalbano's long-distance girlfriend Livia flies in to go on holiday with Montabano to another part of the island but Montalbano's not happy about it:

I wouldn't want to run into a film crew shooting an episode of that television series just as we're walking around there...They film them around there you know.

...And what if I find myself face to face with the actor who plays me?

….he's totally bald, whereas I've got more hair than I know what to do with!

Before he and Livia get away however, it seems that Fazio has disappeared. He had told his wife he was meeting Montalbano at the port the previous night and hasn't been seen since. Montalbano has to find out what Fazio's been up to and rescue his friend, if he's been captured, or worse find his body. So begins an investigation which encompasses several deaths, romantic subterfuge and ends with a risky plan to bring down the culprits.

THE DANCE OF THE SEAGULL is Montalbano firing on all cylinders as he outwits those who would hurt his “family” and brings justice to those who consider themselves untouchable. Montalbano, in the main, is as open-minded and compassionate as we've come to expect with the victims and family of victims, with one exception – he is unpleasantly harsh with one victim/witness, which seemed out of character. His relationship with Livia is still as prickly as ever though. The usual mix of wit, food descriptions and political observations run through the narrative and I found myself chuckling regularly. After the slightly weak THE AGE OF DOUBT – the events in which are not referred to at all in this book and despite the similar port setting – this was a real treat.

As I always do, I recommend starting from the beginning, THE SHAPE OF WATER, if you've not read any before, partly because this is a great series but also to follow Montalbano's ageing and how he rails against it and to understand the background to his internal arguments with 'Montalbano One' and 'Two' who are introduced a few books in.

New Reviews: Camilleri, Gray, Johnston, Marklund, Quinn, Rhodes

Here is the final set of reviews to be added to the Euro Crime website in 2012 however over the next couple of weeks I'll be posting the reviewers' favourite discoveries of 2012 on the blog, so please check back frequently.

I'm continually grateful to the dedicated reviewers who keep the review section of Euro Crime going with their submissions. Early in the New Year I'll be compiling their favourite reads of 2012.

The next set of reviews will appear around 6-7 January 2013.

Here are the final reviews of 2012:

Susan White reviews the paperback release of the International Dagger Award-winning The Potter's Field by Andrea Camilleri, tr. Stephen Sartarelli;

Terry Halligan reviews Alex Gray's ninth Lorimer-Brightman book A Pound of Flesh set in a wintry Glasgow, and now out in paperback;

Paul Johnston's Alex Mavros is caught up in the Olympics - the 2004 Olympics in Athens - in The Green Lady, reviewed here by Geoff Jones;

In wintry Stockholm, Liza Marklund's Annika Bengtzon gets the story of a lifetime in Last Will, tr. Neil Smith, which reviewer Lynn Harvey calls "nail-biting";

Terry also reviews Anthony Quinn's debut Disappeared which introduces Northern Ireland policeman Celcius Daly

and Lizzie Hayes reviews Kate Rhodes debut Crossbones Yard.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

New Reviews: Camilleri, Connolly, Hunter, Kelly, Kepler, O'Donnell, Robertson

Here are 7 new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today:

Maxine Clarke reviews Andrea Camilleri's The Age of Doubt tr. Stephen Sartarelli the latest Montalbano to have a UK release;

Lynn Harvey reviews John Connolly's The Wrath of Angels the new 'Charlie Parker' novel;

Terry Halligan reviews Alan Hunter's Gently Continental, the series upon which the TV show is (very) loosely based;

Jim Kelly's Philip Dryden is back, in Nightrise, reviewed here by Geoff Jones;

Earlier this week, on the blog, I reviewed Lars Kepler's The Nightmare tr. Laura A Wideburg, the follow-up to The Hypnotist, starring Stockholm detective Joona Linna;

Susan White reviews Peter O'Donnell's A Taste for Death featuring Modesty Blaise, which is being serialised on Radio 4 later this month

and Amanda Gillies reviews the paperback release of Imogen Robertson's Circle of Shadows the fourth in the eighteenth-century Westerman-Crowther series.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

TV News: Hinterland & Young Montalbano

BBC Four has two more crime dramas lined up, they've announced today: Hinterland and Young Montalbano.

Hinterland:

Hinterland is a gripping new detective series based in the coastal Welsh town of Aberystwyth - set against the backdrop of mountainous hinterland, isolated farms and close-knit villages. A natural crucible of colliding worlds, where history, myth and tradition come face to face with the modern and contemporary - its panoramic vistas and quaint facade hide a multitude of sins - this is a place that lives according to its own rules, a place where grudges fester, where the secrets of the past are buried deep.

DCI Tom Mathias (Richard Harrington, Lark Rise To Candleford) is a brilliant but troubled man on the run from his past. Having abandoned his life in London, he finds himself holed up in a trailer park on the outskirts of town – a place filled with secrets as dark and destructive as his own. Together with hometime girl DI Mared Rhys, he forms an engaging partnership in a thrilling new drama with pace, poetry and scale.

And this from This is South Wales:

A NEW television detective series that will be shown in both Welsh and English is to film in Ceredigion.

Mathias, starring Richard Harrington in the lead role of DCI Tom Mathias, will start shooting this autumn.

It is the first back-to-back drama series to be made in both languages and will first be shown in Welsh on S4C and then in English on BBC Wales under the title Hinterland.

Young Montalbano:

The Inspector Montalbano drama series have been a popular fixture of the BBC Four schedule for the past year. Now, in Young Montalbano, viewers will get the opportunity to learn how both the private life and career of the Sicilian detective developed in this new series which gives an insight into his youth. Set in the early 1990s and starring Michele Riondino in the title role, this prequel series, also written by Andrea Camilleri was recently shown to critical acclaim in Italy.

So far 6 episodes of 100 minutes have been filmed. It stars younger versions of all the regular characters -  Fazio, Mimi, Catarella, Livia, Pasquano and Zito.

The Final (for now) Episode of Inspector Montalbano

The final episode in the current run of Inspector Montalbano, at 9pm on 10 November, is Treasure Hunt, based on Andrea Camilleri's as yet untranslated (into English) La Caccia al Tesoro:

An elderly couple, both religious fanatics, barricade themselves in their home and begin shooting from the windows for no apparent reason, until Montalbano's men finally succeed in disarming them.

There seems to be no justification for the couple's insane actions, but police find a strangely disfigured inflatable doll inside their home. A few days later, an identical doll is discovered in a rubbish bin and Montalbano has a bad premonition.

Soon enough, a series of strange occurrences develops - disquieting letters bearing riddles are delivered to Montalbano at Vigata police station, while a young woman is reported missing. A disturbed maniac is playing a macabre game of treasure hunt with the inspector and the riddle must be solved before it's too late.

The good news is that there are 4 more episodes in the pipeline and that the third series of The Killing will take Inspector Montalbano's place on BBC4 from the 17th.