As the cricket season comes to an end with Durham County Champions and Nottingham winners of the 40 over competition at Lords only a week ago I need time to reflect on my travels to the Oval, Lords( twice and three days) Trent Bridge 1 day, Old Trafford 1 Day, Northants 1 Day, Edgbaston 1 Day, Scarborough (twice over four days) Derby (twice over four days and Sussex (three days). Instead after recounting my travel here back to the Travel Lodge Chaddesden, Derby and home, I will concentrate once more on Inspector Salvo Montalbano having watched last Saturday’s important episode of Young Montalbano which introduced us to Livia and Mimi Augello, finished reading August Heat, will watch the fourth episode in two and half hours and commencing to read The Wings of the Sphinx. The two Saturday episodes occurred during my travels as has the finishing of the novel.
This morning Saturday 28th September I was packed and ready to leave for the first leg of the journey back to Tyneside before 9 having the night before called in at the Marks and Spencers for my evening meal of Feta cheese and mixed olives and a large size quiche with bacon, finishing off with a packet of peanuts covered in Belgian Chocolate.
I set off for the Morrison’s at the back of Worthing only to find there was no Petrol Station and then joined the A27 discovering it passed close to the back of the huge Tesco and M and S at Shoreham and through the tunnel through Southwick Hill before coming to the familiar section leading to the M23.
As the M23 approached the M25 I took a decision which was to have significant consequence, taking the slip road to towards Purley and South Croydon , choosing the garage in the opposite direction the BP where I had filled up on arrival a week Friday beforehand as there was an offer of two pence a litre less, purchasing a Pepsi can for £1.09 which I drank at the Starbucks before rejoining the M23 and taking the M25 towards Heathrow. The traffic slowed to standstill as I approached the slip road to Sutton with the information of an accident and the need to turn off the motorway. However just as I was about to do this the slip road and the opposing traffic was also brought to a standstill for the arrival of a helicopter ambulance, fire engines and more police cars and motorway traffic staff. I knew I was in for a long wait without getting out of the car to take a closer look just a few yards ahead.
When I did a tent had been erected over a vehicle I was later to see on a breakdown removal vehicle with fireman appearing to take it in turns to enter to cut out who ever was or were imprisoned in the vehicle. It was about an hour before ambulance departed, then the helicopter, then the fire engines and traffic was able to move slowly away along the slip road to the roundabout and over back on to the empty motorway. Traffic in the other direction was allowed to move in the far lane and later as I approached the start of the M1 I heard of tail backs of ten miles and 90 minutes to pass the what I assumed was the scene of several fatalities. I stopped at the Chobham services on the M25 for a large Greggs White Coffee £2.20 and called in and M and S for some Belgian Chocolate covered raisons.
I arrived at Chaddesden around four and settled in after going to buy some milk, a can of Pepsi which I drank immediately and a bottle of Sprite which I out in a vacuum flask to enjoy a few moments ago with the second quiche purchased last night with Bacon, leek and Mushroom I had enjoyed the second carton of Feta cheese and mixed olives from M and S and the carton of spicy chicken wings for lunch while I waited close to the major accident.
I have come to Chaddesden only because my first choice Donnington would have cost twice as much although this in fact is a perfect location and room. There is a walk in shower, the large flat screen TV is on the desk and includes the full range of digital channels. There are four chunky pillows with tables at bed height alongside and ideal for the Sleep Apnoea machine.
The Lodge has an Aldi on the far side and the Toby carvery with the eat what you like breakfast for £3.99, I went to the Cooperative local for the milk and other drinks having used the Lidl when I came for the cricket. There is a Chippy, Indian Chinese and Pizza Takeaways as well as newsagents, hairdressers and other useful facilities. It was also warm and sunny and even now as the dusk arrives there is sound of families enjoying drinks and food sitting outside the Carvery and Lodge and also some boys larking about.
I am about to watch the second part of the first series of dancers by the 15 new entrants to Strictly Come Dancing with the first six performing last night where Tony Jacklin was poor but some of the others were exceptional for first week performers. Having watched the second show with the remaining nine performers the best was saved until last with the model turned presented wife of Footballer Peter Crouch topped the broad with the new Russian professional dancer with 4 8 ratings out of ten and looked embarrassed by her success whereas one fo the hairy biker created humour with his attempt at the jive and now challenges Tony Jacklin for the wooden spoon. A couple of the size challenged older entrants, one the woman from the Dragon‘s Den and the other an established character actor did much better than expected and may stay on the programme until November. I then tried to stay awake for another great episode of Montalbano.
I slept well in my new surroundings, the third in the 9 days and watched almost all of Match of the day, missing the defeats of Manchester United at home 2.1 Manchester City losing away and with Chelsea earning a 1.1 draw at Spurs and Arsenal winning the three London Clubs headed the table until the expected win by Liverpool which I listened to on the radio after an excellent lunch.
The lunch was at a carvery which had been flooded and closed for several months but has been reopened within the past couple of weeks. However I decided to choose a mustard casserole with turkey to which I added some Mediterranean vegetables and green beans but no potatoes. Some of the other in the party had some delicious sweets which I also resisted and despite the three cartons of olives with Feta cheese consumed over recent days as well as to the large quiches my weight has reduced by a couple fo plans so that getting below 16 stone for the visit to the consultant regarding my weight now looks an achievable objective.
The weather was sunny at the start of the day, clouded over and then brightened up for the homeward journey. I passed yet another major accident this time in the opposite direction on the A19 and watched the traffic slow down to a long tail back as I continued. I was cut in by a lorry who seemed upset with my driving at a distance behind other vehicle in the nearside line. It proved a nasty moment in an otherwise uneventful journey. I listened to the first episode Sword of Honour Guy Crouchbanks view of thee Second World War written by Evelyn Waugh in his trilogy of novels in which the hero find himself a non commissioned officer in the Halberdiers, a fictional regiment with a character Commandant. It was great fun as are all the works of the writer.
All was well at home although the house was cold and i was torn between a good unpack and house sorting because of the belief the gas man boiler service was on the morrow and the pull of the TV with the second half of the Sunderland Game, Surprise Surprise, The X factor final part selecting the 24 to go to the Judge house from which the final 12 will be selected, perhaps with three wild cards and the second part Downton Abbey, competing with the first regular season contest of two teams from the National Football League, the Minnesota Vikings and the Pittsburgh stealers both without a win in three to date. Sunderland lost 3.1 and now face Manchester United at Home and then they play Newcastle, so may the force start to be with them but I think not. Surprise Surprise had nothing of substance to compare with the second week. Similarly there is no one identified as world wide outstanding in the X Factor and I condemn the cruelty of the new format where six of contestants for each judge are awarded seats destined for the judges house selection experience but if the laces are filled before all contestants have performed than should one or more prove better than those already selected then the judge with reject one already selected thus raising and dashing their hopes within the short period of the programme segment.
As promised I now turn to Montalbano and I begin with the novel August Heat. Through the genius of Andrea Camilleri we experience the insufferable intensity of the heat in the Sicilian summer and too late Detective Inspector Salvo Montalbano sends staff to locate an appropriate fan although he manages to find one fo the small hand held fans which I have also used to cope with the heat of the Mediterranean day. The police crime story of this book happens by accident, in fact and literally. He is asked to find a suitable beach house on the island for the family of a relative of Livia who also plans to stay with them rather than wait alone at his home or elsewhere for Salvo as he is consumed by the latest cases to emerge. Salvo has great difficulty given that holiday properties have long since been hired but relatively close to hand he about to find a house on its own close the sea.
Everyone is pleased with the find until after a storm with great rain the house becomes infested on three separate occasions requiring the attention of local pest control the intervention of the local major. Just when it seems the visitors can settle and enjoy their holiday the three year old child of the couple disappears. The child is find with the help of a cat and where he is located brings to attention the practice of builders and land developers to try and maximise profit from speculative venture. In this instance a couple from Germany with a simpleton of a son had built the house on a hillside but had never used the property. The son had disappeared while travelling to Germany with the husband and the husband had died subsequently so the widow had asked the building agent to get rid o the property for her.
It is not clear if she was aware that her husband had done a deal with the proper agent site developer and builder to create a second property beneath that of the owner in such a way that it was complete except for adding the windows and doorway with the space covered to ensure the protection of everything else and then the whole level hidden by earth. Then after due time application would be made for the property to recognised despite the failure to gain planning permission and comply with the contemporary local regulations. Successive governments had given amnesty to all those who engaged in this widespread practice from time to time.
In this instance Salvo is curious about a trunk left in the living room and after the boy is reunited with his family he has an explore and finds a body carefully wrapped of a young girl Given the hour and the likelihood that he would not be able to find alternative accommodation for the family he leaves official action until the morning.
Livia and the family having overcome everything else of those first days are horrified that they spent the night oblivious that a body was below with Livia in particular refusing to accept Salvo’s reasoning that the body had been there at the outset and after the trauma of the boy getting himself into the flat and she and the family immediately retreated back to the mainland but as she departed the mood is created that some irreparable about her long standing relationship with Salvo and indeed before the books ends she has departed to sail with a male relative and became incommunicado with Salvo. Meanwhile!
Pieces of the puzzle commenced to emerge. The missing girl was identified as a beautiful young woman with a twin sister just as beautiful. There is something seductive about her manner when interviewed by Salvo but he knows he must resist her charms. His attention centre on the agent and builders especially when one, I cannot remember which is found to have an interest in adolescent girls and has taken trips to places where the poor will strike deals over their children. The way in to his murky world is through those who were engaged in work on the homes and in the sealing of the second home with the body in the trunk. It is also the finding that an immigrant worker had died on another site and that it had been made to look as if the man was drunk and fallen from a properly protected height when in fact evidence is found to show that the protecting rail was purchased later although proving in a court of law would be difficult to impossible. Salvo use the information gained about this situation as leverage in relation to the death of the girl.
According to his superiors the prime suspect is however the son of low intelligence of the property owner who has the habit of accosting young women usually for a kiss or just to touch. When the body of this young man is found naked close to a railway line it is assumed by Salvo’s master that this was a suicide and the case is closed the based that the dead girl was killed by the young man who had previously shown interest in her and hidden in the home before it was closed up.
However Salvo is far convinced with the more likely explanation that the young had accidentally opened the wrong door at night instead of the toilet. This young did not have the wit to kill and hide the girl. Salvo would like to believe the guilty man is the one with the penchant for adolescent girls, although in this instance young woman was older and the man appears to have a cast iron alibi by taking a flight to the Far East confirmed when his secretary notes a telephone call at the flight refuel stop.
The breakthrough comes when Salvo finds that the suspect was unable to get the connecting flight to Bangkok and he supposes that on his intended return to Vigate he to took the road to check that work on the secret home has been completed and sees the young girl and on the spur phones his secretary to stay he has reached the stop over destination unaware that since his last trip the flight no longer stopped over. He had abducted the girl and hidden her body in the trunk after killing her. On his return he had drawn up a contract with the agent to ensure that his firm was responsible for bringing the secret home back to life when the amnesty application was granted, enabling him to then dispose of the body. All this was conjecture based on circumstantial evidence and Salvo devises a plan with the willing assistance of the twin sister in which her family offer to purchase both properties and arranges to meet with Salvo close to hand and colleagues within shouting distance.
By this time the girl has seduced Salvo and he has given her his gun to hand as an added precaution. She uses the weapon to shoot her sister’s killer and Salvo then onoy realises that was her attention all along and that far from having a serious interest in him he was used and in the circumstances he has to give the impression that eh fired the shot when the man attacked the girl although it was she who had wrenched open her blouse to incite and incriminate the man who was shocked to initially discover the purchased appeared to be the girl he had killed several years before.
He responded to the realization by taking off his clothes and going for along swim in the waters below the crime scene. He had wept as swam out anger and humiliation he had been a puppet in her hands, all theatre and make believe. He had behaved as a child and not a fifty five year old.
I listened to an interview with sir Derek Jacobi earlier to day in which he made the point that those who want to act should not but those he needed to act should do. This truth applies to all of us driven in some profession, work, action but there are prices to pay and while expert at the myopic drive, the need there is often ignorance and innocence at other aspects of life.
There is also a moment towards the book when he sets out on a table all the dishes his housekeeper has prepared in the fridge, the green olives, the cured black pass ulna olives, celery, caciocavallo cheese and six dishes, one with fresh anchovies, one with calamaretti another with perpidettri, another with squid, another with tuna and one with sea snails. Each was dressed differently with more in the fridge. In inhaled the aromas He rings Livia and she does not respond. Adriana then arrives for the invited meal.
The third and fourth episodes of Young Montalbano are brilliant for their connection between the young and the old. Back to Basics begins with the arrival of Mimi Augello as a brash young man who cannot resist flirting with every young woman who comes into his field of vision whether they are single or married. Salvo takes an immediate dislike to his manner, especially towards him although they are of the same rank one is the body and the other deputy. They are then called to a break in where the only thing that appears to have been removed are the tops of some beer bottles.
The victim lives in a large house which he has filled everything from his life which he does not throw away and which he catalogues and organises in boxes on shelving...sounds familiar to what I am doing with artwork.
Just as at new Years Day Salvo decides to stay home on a Feast day and eat a great meal delivered by his favourite Trattoria with wine, water, starters and main courses and no doubt a sweet or two while Fazio and his family entertain Mimi at the Festival However just as he is about to tuck into the meal Fazio rings because a three year old girl has vanished and the weather has deteriorated into a rain storm. If the girl is not immediately found they will have to organise and official search, so Salvo has to immediately leave. The child is found by a couple alone outside their home and cared for after the parents have been informed When Salvo visits he finds Mimi already there and already taking an interest in the friend of the girl’s mother staying with them holiday one Livia Burlando. She and Salvo immediately take an interest in each other. When he calls the following day the husband says everything is Ok, the child is not harmed and he wants no further action. Salvo sees the child with Livia and tries to find out if the child has said anything to explain the period of her disappearance. The child draws pictures.
Meanwhile the theft of the bottle tops is being followed up with the growing belief after some research that the tops contained drugs in the bottle top had a supply had been delivered by mistake to the owner horder and a visit reveals that he had the boxes with their incriminating red cross. The plan is to keep watch on the premises where the special boxes should have been delivered
Meanwhile a grocer called Bonsignore and not Monsignor as introduced by Catarella, under pressure from Mrs Bonsignore asks if a child has been abducted before explaining an incident when the couple and attended the fiesta A man had rough handled a child into a car. This suggests it was not a random abduction but planned by someone who knew the family would be attending the fiesta. Mimi offers to take Livia out to find if she child has revealed more. Salvo accuses Mimi of trying to mix business with pleasure while Mimi retaliates that Salvo is jealous and he will drop out, stand back if Salvo is interested in Livia, which is denied.
Mimi subsequently advises Salvo of the outcome of the meeting that the wife’s brother and husband had quarrelled over the way their company was being managed. Salvo visits the maternal grandfather and find that the son and son in law have reached break down in their relationship over the future of the company.
His daughter and son in law and child have gone back home. Livia has stayed behind. He shows a pure rubber ball which he is to paint like the one that the child lost and we come to something which I thought at the time was significant. He visits the son and finds that he has now bought out his brother in law, he goes to dine at the Trattoria in the evening and see Livia with Mimi and she insists he joins them and they talk about the kidnapping which he should not have discussed with the young woman. Before going off he advises Mimi that he will pick him up at 5 for the stake out on the delivery of more wine which they hoped will included marked boxes containing drugs in the caps. His order ensures Mini and Livia do not spend the night together.
They find the drugs but he driver runs off and in the chase Fazio has a heart attack and this becomes the priority concern of everyone at the station. He survives much to the relief of Salvo and his colleagues. The drugs were under the cap as such but solidified as part of he cap. On returning to the police station Salvo encounters an angry building contractor who complains that he cannot win a contract because the mafia have influence on who gets contracts. A member of one mafia family had come to see him on behalf of the other who head has been on the run for many years and wanted to have a seat on the board as a way for the owner to get contracts, he had shown the emissary the door. That it appears the two Mafia families are doing business with each other is a great worry but it suggests a way into finding out about the kidnapping and the drug distribution if the head mafia man on the run is using other to front companies for him.
Livia comes to bring drawings from the child which show the abduction and that she had the coloured rubber ball with her. Because the child had not been wet when returned this suggests they she had been kept in a garage somewhere in the area during the rain storm,
He takes Livia on a search for the garage but they are unsuccessful. He returns the bottle tops to the hoarder who can do better than tell Salvo of those with garages in the area, he can show the house plans which he has kept from his period in office and there are three houses with garages in the area. He has a meal with Livia with Mimi making fun of him afterwards. Mimi Investigate the owners of the three properties and find that one has rented the house for a year to someone who not only has a criminal record but in related to one fo the mafia families.
From the previous episode the woman who son Salvo did not arrest bring some of the delicacies she sells to add to her income and Salvo finds he has a cleaner cook who is to serve him over the years and where he takes an interest in the sons, both petty criminals and where he has agreed to become the Godfather of the son of one to Livia‘s consternation until he agrees to become the Godfather also of Mimi‘s son. The grocers cannot identify the photo of the man renting the villa as the one who abducted the child. Salvo has another meal with Livia and she cannot remember if the child had not returned with something she had on her. She is going back to work the following day. Then Salvo has the brainwave. The ball, the girl had with her and he rushes back to the station promising to contact Livia in the morning before she leaves.
He then uses a bluff to get the son owner of the business to admit that he had been forced to bring in a representative of in Mafia families to his board as part of the expansion an another front company as the one using the bottle tops of beat to distribute the drugs. Salvo pretends that the fake ball is the original found in the a garage of the man who abducted the girl and who he brings into the room with Mimi having arrested on what looks a drink and fighting charge. He uses the replacement ball painted by the grandfather. He did not have grounds for searching the garage on the hunch the ball was there. He remembers Livia is leaving and rushes to the bus stop where he stop the vehicle and she offers to stay another day, They have a passionate kiss. The romance and relationships begins.
The fourth episode Mortally Wounded begins with our sharing that Livia and spent the night with Salvo but he does not appear enthusiastic about the relationship continuing as we suspect she would like, qualifying that he would visit her depending on his work commitments. Returning to the police station he sees a commotion over poster advertising a referendum whether the wife of a well known local politician is a lady of easy virtue! Fazio looking well returns to duty although Salvo is reluctant to place him on active duty but the man pleads to be able to work saying he became depressed at home. He has asked Mimi who knows the woman in question from the same gym he attends. There is a call to attend the Mayor at the Town Hall when ere is a riot. This in fact is only the husband of the woman demanding to see the Mayor for the failure to remove the poster quickly. The Mayor and his deputy explain that all three are members of the same party( or were members of the same party) but of different factions over the direction of policy.
The husband believed the two men were behind he campaign for political reasons. They have agreed that the posters should come down but because the tax has not been made but it will take a few days because of limited manpower who are already fully engaged. This could suggest to Salvo and ourselves that the husband is correct in his allegations, but we also know that the first solution is unlikely to be the actual cause, otherwise there would be no story.
However I have to admit that at this point I cannot remember the story so will run through the recording. The woman is 30 and the husband 45 year old shop keeper who is impotent, what is becoming a regular theme with the author. Mimi is now interested in the wife of his dentist!
This is not the main story of this episode and as suspected the investigation reveals something very different from the first appearance. It emerges that the wife wanted a neighbour who rejected her advances. To get revenge it was she who arranged with a young admirer at the gym to print the posters about herself. She had then pretended to be the subject of an attempted rape by the neighbour scratching her own legs which at one point she reveals to Salvo and Mimi. She claimed to have reluctantly revealed the truth of what happened to her husband who had shot the man, fortunately had survived been muttering some numbers which the police think is a number and then Salvo realises is the reference to a bible story. The woman and the poster maker are arrested. When the Inspector realises the significance the numbers and arranged to get a bible he calls at Mimi late at night only find that he is entertaining the wife of the dentist while the husband is away.
Salvo is at home about to enjoy food prepared by Adelina when Livia rings to say she has returned and he promises to contact his father whose call she and taken before leaving but he goes to bed without contacting. We now come to the main investigation when a 67 year old widower retired farmer of six years is found shot in bed by his niece who lives in the house him. The man is loan shark and there is a separate entrance to his office which customers use so she has no knowledge of who they are. There are records in the office but as is suspected not those involved with major loans. He is a nasty piece of work with 100 turning into 1000 within a short period of time. They are surprised about how little money is in the safe.
The parents of the niece died in a car crash and everything was OK with her uncle and his wife until the wife died when he commenced to take an interest in her. What also emerges is that the uncle required favours from the female client to whom he loaned money, thus widening the field of those who wanted him dead.
When the programme commenced Salvo complains to the delivery young man who can be described as a simpleton again the parallel with August Heat is noted. The young man has forgotten the Trapanese Pesto and when Salvo asks at the store when it is not brought round he is told they are out of stock and the firm making the sauce is on strike. The boy is missing and the store owner decides to report him as a missing person. Meanwhile Adelina complains about the use of Pesto when she can make a proper sauce which Salvo enjoys. The young man is found dead on the beach with a bullet in his back. The niece had said she fired at the intruder/murderer of her uncle so it appears this was the young which does not make sense to Salvo or his employer. The magistrate takes the view that the murdered man and the young man had a homosexual relationship, thy had argued and the young man had killed the loan shark, and when wounded he had been unable to go to hospital for help because that would incriminate him in the murder. The case could be closed.
However Salvo is far from satisfied. He tries to follow up who the loan shark used as a strong arm man and this brings him into contact with a school friend Gege, who has an attractive sister who Salvo was friendly with at one time. He has become a pimp on a beach site as well as a police informer. He introduces him to a woman who can name the man.
He advises the niece that she can return to her now that the case has been closed and arranges for the phone to be tapped. This results in her having contact with the strong arm man who will call at midnight ad that she has two things to give to him. Previously Salvo has met the father of the delivery boy who says that shortly before his death the boy had started to sing something he had not done before suggesting he had formed a relationship with someone. It is revealed that because the murdered ha attempted to sexually interfered with the niece she had planned revenge, first by having a relationship with the strong arm man who had killed his boss. She had befriend and used the young man getting him to call and therefore killing him as she was a good shot so that he took the blame for the murder. I cannot remember if she also planned to kill the strong arm man or they planned to jointly use the huge funds the loan shark had amassed.
Right at the end of episode Fazio retires following his latest check up and when he collects his things his son comes with him who is about to qualify and therefore Salvo agrees to support the request for the boy to replace his father as long as he promises not to be so thorough and pedantic with his researches.
This is not the final story as Livia has returned for a short stay and while Montalbano is out his father calls and they have a long chat but the stay is brief when the Salvo returns. The episode explains that when he was an adolescent his mother had died and he had been brought up by his uncle and aunt, this the parallel with the girl in the main story. His father was busy and had limited contact with him and one day he had not gone to school and gone to see his father and found that he had established a new relationship with a woman who had two boys of her own. Salvo felt his mother had been betrayed and that he had been betrayed hence the complicated relationship with his father. Livia comforts.
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