I’ve enjoyed reading detective series for a very long time.
I was trying to think for how long: I certainly remember ‘discovering’ Agatha
Christie, probably in my late twenties after a colleague proudly showed me his
collection of ancient Penguin editions. I borrowed one and that was it, I was
hooked. Then I went on to Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham etc, and
later, I crossed the Atlantic (in spirit) to enter the super-cool world of Raymond
Chandler.
But actually I think it started way before then. A lot of
the series I borrowed from the children’s library were, in a way, detective
stories – the Famous Five and the Malcolm Saville books, for example, both
centred round a mystery – and usually a dastardly criminal – who had to be
investigated by sleuthing children.
Recently, though, having a Kindle has moved my enjoyment of
the genre up to a whole new level. It began when a friend recommended the
Montalbano series, by Andrea Camilleri. (Incidentally, Camilleri wrote the first of this massively successful
and much-loved series when he was 69. I find that curiously comforting.) I
downloaded the first and loved it. For anyone who hasn’t seen or heard of
Montalbano, he is an eccentric, short-tempered but very lovable Sicilian
detective inspector. He lives in a house right on the edge of a beach, and
often goes for an early morning swim to clear his mind. Probably the most
important thing in his life is food – and woe betide anyone who interrupts his
enjoyment of a good meal, or who serves him up a bad one. Other objects of his
affection are his team – lascivious Mimi, loyal Fazio and the utterly bonkers
Caterella; his long-distance girlfriend Livia, and his best friend Ingrid, the
utterly beautiful six foot Swedish blonde, who helps him out in so many ways.
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| Catarella, Montalbano (aka Luca Zingaretti), Fazio and Mimi - from the Italian TV series |
Like all the best detectives, Salvo Montalbano is very much
his own man. He’s left-wing, cynical, and a natural rebel who loves to wind up
his superiors and lives in terror of being promoted. He doesn’t toe the party
line, and he certainly doesn’t follow procedures. He’s a maverick who inspires
loyalty and admiration – even from the criminal fraternity.
So – I read the first one. Then his publishers did a very
clever thing. They put the first chapter of the second book at the end of the
first one. So, just at the point where you are reluctantly dragging yourself
away from the sun-drenched shores of Sicily, you’re offered another chance.
What harm can it do? You read the first chapter. You realise that not only are
you being offered a brand new adventure – you are also being given the chance
to pick up the threads left dangling in the first. And that’s it – you’re
hooked. You don’t even have to get out of bed. With a few taps on the screen,
it’s done: the second book is there. And so it goes on.
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| Young Montalbano, played by Michele Riordano |
This cunning ploy certainly helps the publishers – but it
helps you, the reader, too. You don’t have to waste time till you can get to a
bookshop or till you can order the next book from the library – you can read
the whole series end-to-end. So there’ll be none of that forgetting what
happened earlier on in the series (well, you’d better hope there isn’t, because
one thing it isn’t easy to do with a Kindle is to flick back through the pages
to check on something). You get a clear sense of the series arc; of how the
characters are developing, how they are affected by their experiences. In the
case of Montalbano, you also begin to get a sense of the social and political
context of the books, and of Camilleri’s own concerns about Italy and how it is
governed.
But every good series comes to an end, so what did I read next? Well, for that you’ll have to wait till next time.
But meanwhile, PLEASE tell me about your own favourite detective novels in the comments. I'm on the lookout for my next series.
