The Pyramid of Mud

Andrea Camilleri

Translated by Stephen Sartarelli
14 October 2021
9781529047844
288 pages

Synopsis

The Pyramid of Mud is the twenty-second Montalbano mystery from Italy’s finest crime writer, Andrea Camilleri.

It’s been raining for days in Vigàta, and the persistent downpours have led to violent floods overwhelming the Inspector’s beloved hometown, sweeping across the land and leaving only a sea of mud behind. It is on one of these endless grey days that a man – a Mr Giuglù Nicotra – is found dead, his body discovered in a large sewage tunnel, half naked and with a bullet in his back.

The investigation is slow and slippery to start with, but when Montalbano realizes that every clue he uncovers and every person he interviews is leading to the same place – the world of public spending and, with it, the Mafia – the case begins to pick up pace.

But there’s one question that keeps playing on Montalbano’s mind: in his strange and untimely death, was Giuglù Nicotra trying to tell him something?

The Pyramid of Mud is followed by the twenty-third gripping Montalbano mystery, The Overnight Kidnapper.

Among the most exquisitely crafted pieces of crime writing available today . . . Simply superb
One of fiction’s greatest detectives and Camilleri is one of Europe’s greatest crime writers
Montalbano’s colleagues, chance encounters, Sicilian mores, even the contents of his fridge are described with the wit and gusto that make this narrator the best company in crime fiction today