review of The Safety Net by Andrea Camilleri

Really sad to see this great series coming to an end…

I have very much enjoyed Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano series, starting back in the early 2010s when I first discovered it and binge read all of the titles that were already available.   After that, of course, I had to wait (not very patiently) as each new book was written and translated into English.   So I am sad now that there are only a couple more titles left to translate after Camilleri passed away in 2019.  

In spite of knowing it’s one of the last few books in the series, I still enjoyed The Safety Net.    There’s the usual cast of characters, reassuring in their consistency, so that I felt almost a part of the group.   There’s also Montalbano’s particular way of dealing with moral ambiguity, which doesn’t always follow the rules, but tries to do what’s right.  There’s a lot of the Sicilian countryside – which, someday, post-Covid-19, I’d love to visit.   And as often happens, Camilleri also has Montalbano deal with some topics of the day – in this case smartphones and the internet.  And, of course, there’s the food!   And the food!  The Safety Net is more than its background though, wonderful though that is, and I also enjoyed the two rather different plot threads (one derived from events long past, and the other from a very current school invasion) that wove through the book, and finally got resolved at the end.     

I’m giving The Safety Net one of my rare-ish five star ratings, which I try not to give too often, to fight “star-flation” a little bit.   But The Safety Net earned its five stars.   And, finally I’d like to thank Edelweiss and Penguin Books for the advance review copy.  

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