Camilleri's gripping seventh Inspector Montalbano mystery (after 2005's *The Smell of the Night*) successfully integrates serious political themes with a hero reminiscent of Colin Dexter's beloved Inspector Morse. Frustrated by his department's...
The Rant sisters have gathered a reputation in their coastal village of Abbots Crozier. As daughters of a deceased--and, in his time, far from beloved--medical doctor, Morpeth and Bryony Rant decided to remain in the family house and try their...
Mrs. Beatrice Lestrange Bradley receives a visit from her barrister son, Ferdinand Lestrange, who brings with him a plea for help. The coastal convent and girls' school of Saint Peter's Finger reports that student Ursula Doyle has died under...
When two male students execute a rag against the nearby Calladale women's agricultural college--a prank involving rhubarb and dead rats--the ladies decide to give the men back some of their own. They collect the litter and sneak it over to a pub...
The humble town of Brayne is about to be upgraded to a borough. For energetic councilor Julian Perse such elevated status requires proper celebration, namely the organization of a multi-part historical pageant to be held throughout the village. A...
Laura's trip to her native Scotland--accompanying Dame Beatrice for a conference, the secretary finds the venture more pleasure than business--begins ominously when she witnesses at Inverness a man thrown into the path of a speeding lorry. A...
On a rainy, miserable night, down-on-his-luck author George Mandsell ducks into a public telephone box, intending to call his publisher and ask for an advance. As soon as he is inside, the phone begins to ring. Answering it, he discovers that the...
Depending on how one looks at it, Mr. Theddeus E. Lawrence manages to incur either terrible misfortune or celebrated windfalls. Relatives and family members have a habit of dying, but Lawrence is often compensated for his loss. His father (who...
Margaret and Kenneth Clifton pass their childhood summers with their two sets of aunts and uncles in the sleepy village of Hill. They spend their days playing in the town's sheepwash, avoiding Sunday school, investigating the old hermit's shack,...