THE TRACK OF SAND

The irascible police inspector Salvo Montalbano, at 56 and counting, is splendidly evoked by Grover Gardner as he battles with prescient dreams, contentious peers, failing eyesight, and brutally murdered horses. In Camilleri’s 12th Sicilian police novel, a dead horse discovered on Montalbano’s beach launches a convoluted unofficial investigation that leads the bachelor police inspector—think Maigret meets Columbo—to Mafioso and horse racing, as well as seductions and many amazing Italian meals. Italian accents do not rule Gardener’s narration, but the voices of the gruff Montalbano, his seductive female acquaintances, and his hard-pressed staff are all unique snapshots of character. Even the minor characters, such as a peasant with a cell phone and a cuckolded husband with the “voice of a dubber of porn flicks,” are all immensely entertaining. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2011]