Game of Mirrors

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“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 

Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano novels have become an international sensation, with fans eagerly awaiting each new installment.

In Game of Mirrors, Inspector Montalbano and his colleagues are stumped when two bombs explode outside empty warehouses—one of which is connected to a big-time drug dealer. Meanwhile, the alluring Liliana Lombardo is trying to seduce the Inspector over red wine and arancini. Between pesky reporters, amorous trysts, and cocaine kingpins, Montalbano feels as if he’s being manipulated on all fronts. That is, until the inspector himself becomes the prime suspect in an unspeakably brutal crime.Praise for Andrea Camilleri and the Montalbano Series:

 “Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano mysteries might sell like hotcakes in Europe, but these world-weary crime stories were unknown here until the oversight was corrected (in Stephen Sartarelli’s salty translation) by the welcome publication of The Shape of Water…This savagely funny police procedural…prove[s] that sardonic laughter is a sound that translates ever so smoothly into English.”—The New York Times Book Review
 
 “Hailing from the land of Umberto Eco and La Casa Nostra, Montalbano can discuss a pointy-headed book like Western Attitudes Toward Death as unflinchingly as he can pore over crime-scene snuff photos. He throws together an extemporaneous lunch of shrimp with lemon wedges and oil as gracefully as he dodges advances from attractive women.”—Los Angeles Times
 
“[Camilleri’s mysteries] offer quirky characters, crisp dialogue, bright storytelling—and Salvo Montalbano, one of the most engaging protagonists in detective fiction…Montalbano is a delightful creation, an honest man on Siciliy’s mean streets.”—USA Today
 
“Camilleri is as crafty and charming a writer as his protagonist is an investigator.”—The Washington Post Book World 
 
“Like Mike Hammer or Sam Spade, Montalbano is the kind of guy who can’t stay out of trouble…Still, deftly and lovingly translated by Stephen Sartarelli, Camilleri makes it abundantly clear that under the gruff, sardonic exterior our inspector has a heart of gold, and that any outburst, fumbles, or threats are made only in the name of pursuing truth.”—The Nation
 
“Camilleri can do a character’s whole backstory in half a paragraph.”—The New Yorker 
 
“Wit and delicacy and the fast-cut timing of farce play across the surface…but what keeps it from frothing into mere intellectual charm is the persistent, often sexually bemused Montalbano, moving with ease along zigzags created for him, teasing out threads of discrepancy that unravel the whole.”—Houston Chronicle
 
“Sublime and darkly humorous…Camilleri balances his hero’s personal and professional challenges perfectly and leaves the reader eager for more.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“In Sicily, where people do things as they please, Inspector Salvo Montalbano is a bona fide folk hero.”—The New York Times Book Review 
 
“The books are full of sharp, precise characterizations and with subplots that make Montalbano endearingly human…Like the antipasti that Montalbano contentedly consumes, the stories are light and easily consumed, leaving one eager for the next course.”—New York Journal of Books 
 
“The reading of these little gems is fast and fun every step of the way.”—The New York SunAndrea Camilleri is the bestselling author of the popular Inspector Montalbano mystery series, as well as historical novels that take place in nineteenth-century Sicily. He lives in Rome.

Stephen Sartarelli is an award-winning translator and poet. He lives in France.

1. How do you interpret Inspector Montalbano’s dream at the beginning of the novel?

2. What does Montalbano’s theory about the proliferation of paperwork on his desk say about him?

3. Is there any significance to the fact that the Lombardo’s house is “almost identical” (p. 6) to Montalbano’s own?

4. When Montalbano’s housekeeper, Adelina, invites him over to celebrate her son’s birthday, the Inspector is torn between Adelina’s arancini and the dinner date he made with his neighbor, Liliana Lombardo. If Liliana hadn’t agreed to join him at Adelina’s, what choice do you think he would have made? Which would you choose if you had pick between a delicious meal and a sexy—but illicit—date?

5. Are you familiar with The Lady from Shanghai, the Orson Welles’ movie that includes the famous scene in a house of mirrors? If so, why might Camilleri connect this particular movie to his novel? If not, have you ever read about something in a novel and sought it out to read/watch/experience for yourself?

6. In Vigàta, which seems more corrupt: the press or the government? Do you think that Sicily is more corrupt than America, or is it simply better hidden here?

7. While lunching at Enzo’s, Montalbano observes cavaliere Ernesto Jocolano make a fuss about the cleanliness of a plate. Jocolano’s observations spur Montalbano to make a connection he had previously overlooked. Did you understand what Montalbano was thinking before he explained it to Fazio?

8. Were you misled by any of Camilleri’s red herrings? If so, which one?

9. (Spoiler Warning: Don’t read on if you don’t what to know whodunit!)

Montalbano suspects that Liliana has ulterior motives for trying to seduce him, but he still has a difficult time resisting her. How do you think the average man would behave in the same situation? 

10. Was there anything Montalbano could have done to save Liliana and Arturo? Did your opinion of Liliana change once you knew she was trying to protect Arturo?

11. PPlns:o=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” xmlns:w=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word” xmlns:m=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml” xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40″> We never meet Adriano Lombardo until the end of the novel. Did you suspect the true nature of his relationship with Liliana?

12. What do you think about the way Montalbano sets Nicotra up? In Sicily—where justice is notoriously crooked—did the mafia kingpin deserve to die the way he did?

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