I finished Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano novel ‘The Scent of the Night’ yesterday. Like all these stories, the plot is not so much an investigation of a known crime, but rather it is a journey of discovery to find out what crime has actually been committed. Once this is established by Montalbano the crime investigation tends to sort itself out. I love the quirky humour that suffuses these books, particularly Catarella’s confusing messages. And I love the descriptions of Sicilian food, so much so that reading the books makes me want to visit Sicily and eat and eat and eat.
Whilst n the subject of the smell of things, I thought I’d mention a nice article on the Scientific American website on some new work on the smells associated with rainfall. Fresh rain and Sicilian food – that would be a nice combination.
Tim O'Hare 