I enjoyed the fourth book in the Montalbano series The Voice of the Violin, even if the reason for the title does not become apparent until towards the very end. I appreciated the character development and the continuity of some storyline relationships. Having read the first book before appreciating that the TV series had placed the book first out of sequence( The Snack Thief) I was impressed at the way the writer deals with the position of Salvo Montalbano and Livia and their decision to marry and provide a home for the now orphan boy of The Snack Thief - Françoise. During the story Salvo is asked by his deputy Mimi to visit his sister Franca where she is looking after the child with her own two boys at the family farm while the adoption process is progressed and Salvo and Livia prepare for a fundamental change in their daily lifestyles.
Given what was learned about the couple from the first book read and now the previous first two are written I suspect most readers would have guessed that marriage and becoming a day in and day out family man was not something that Salvo was cut out for and that Livia was not cut out for an continuous 24/7 relationship with a self possessed confident to point of egocentricity police Inspector. In fact it takes mature and well adjusted intelligent adults to be able to enjoy and sustain a relationship where both partners have full life occupational activities from which they get their identity and satisfaction and which involves long hours, often travel during which they are separated and are able to develop relationships with others. Having watched the Swedish Television interpretation of Wallander (Henning Mankell’s The Fifth Woman over two weeks recently and presently, The Man who smiled) I have noted many similarities between the two characters and the reasons why I identify with both of them so strongly).
In fairness to Salvo while work and thinking about work takes precedence over most other things in his life the exception is food which he insists in enjoying in silence saving each morsel which is also something of a turn off for most females! I am not saying he does not enjoy sex but I suspect he rarely loses himself completely in the way many if not most people are able to do. My main surprise is that Livia has become so attached to him. I suspect her own work has taken precedence over motherhood and that while she dislikes the fact that Montalbano is often not “with her” during her weekends in Vigáta she is just as content with their weekends and occasional holidays together when he is not fully involved in solving one or more cases.
I also need to be fair that however much he understand the situation Salvo is disappointed that the child has come to appreciate the security offered by Franca and her husband and in particular that he is sharing in the family life as a brother of the two sons who have also welcomed his arrival into the family. It is Françoise who has taken the initiative in demanding to stay however much he appreciates the visits of Salvo and Livia who rescued him during his darkest hour. While Salvo understands the boy’s position and the willingness of Franca and her husband to accept him as a full member of their family he realises this will be a devastating blow for Livia, although even he is surprised at how badly she takes the news arguing that the couple are only after someone to help work the farm and his inheritance. She needs. as she does, to make a surprise visit to the farm on her own but the shock of her rejection, as it seems to her, is the greater as a consequence. Angry with Salvo who she blames for the situation, part fo her difficult to express at times more general anger at him for attaching so much importance to his work, she leaves the island with only brief contact with the man. While the relationship continues and appears to flourish at times, some readers like me will sense that a point of no return will has been reached and question if the relationship will survive and if it does for how long.
It is also a personal event which leads Salvo into the case which is the main subject of this book. The wife of a fellow Inspector in another district is reported dead after being gravely ill for sometime and he arranges to be driven to the funeral., On their way they hit a parked car because trying to avoid a chicken which runs into the road (Returning from a coach trip to watch Durham at Old Trafford Lancashire yesterday 14th July 2013 I encountered two baby Seagulls determined to control the entrance to the back lane with a sit down and even getting out of the car to shoo them away failed. Because of the incident and going to the wrong church they fail to make the funeral and on return finding the vehicle with their note still parked they fail to get a response from the large property where it was parked outside the main gates,
Montalbano arranges for someone to try and find out about the ownership of the House and vehicle. The property was owned by a local doctor, now deceased and inherited by his son, also a doctor, who works in Bologna who married a woman who fell in love with the property when they visited on honeymoon and decided she wanted to establish a home there, staying in the area often (at a hotel as yet undiscovered) making local friends with whom she frequently socialised and it is assumed where she was now staying and had not yet returned to the home as a consequence.
Salvo then did something for which readers familiar with his approach to policing know him only too well. Late at night he enters the property and to his horror he finds a beautiful young woman face down naked on a bed and dead.
In the previous book he had become friends with an aged disabled former school teacher whose helper disliked him but because she cooked good meals Salvo accepted the invitation to dine once a week plus sometimes attending the weekly concert lasting one hour of a famous violinist who now lived in seclusion of the floor above and because of a kindness played the concerts so the former teacher could enjoy his music from her floor and at the end of the concert she would telephone and give applause. Salvo called on the woman on the morning of a concert, almost ended, and where the woman was supplied with as handwritten note of the pieces being played. Salvo who knew little about music could at least tell it was a first class performance and joined in the applause.
The purpose of his visit was however to use the friendship to try and get him out of the problem of having unintentionally contaminated a crime scene. The woman was to the ring the police commissioner and advise that a crime had been committed at the house, mentioning that a bottle green Twingo car was outside. My God Salvo said when someone rang on behalf of the Police Commissioner and after noting the details he said he would explain the amazing coincidence!
The next story development was when Salvo is advised that the murdered woman’s husband is a doctor working in Bologna and that that his reaction, saying he was too busy at the hospital to immediate come to Sicily was odd and prompted the reader to regard the man as the immediate prime suspect. There was an explanation for his behaviour.
First the husband provided Salvo with the name of a distant relative who lived in the province and who he knew had been in contact. This information was to have significant bearing on what happened in the story. The relative had a son, described once kindly as a simple soul or as we would official say to day with learning difficulties, a problem which I remain personally familiar. It is established that the young man age thirty one and at university trying to take a first degree became besotted with the woman, following her about and when he disappears, going on the run it seemed, coinciding with the woman’s death he becomes the prime suspect by those who take over the investigation after Montalbano and his team are removed from the case when it is established that he had entered the property illegally and discovered the body providing evidence through the crime scene management and new forensic techniques which had been introduced. The young man is then killed by the police saying he was armed when they approached the entrance to the cave where he was hiding and they then arrested the father for complicity.
It take great efforts by Salvo with help from his team to establish that the young man had witnessed the murder from a tree out the bedroom. He had fallen and injured his foot which meant he found it difficult to wear his shoe and he had been holding the shoe when exited from the cave at the behest of the police. In order to save face the head of the flying squad involved had helped manufacture the evidence producing a World War 2 grenade which it was claimed he boy was holding and planting a box with another grenade, a revolver and ammunition at the home of the parent. The man is released from custody to grieve for the death of his innocent only child. Montalbano is reinstated to lead the reopened case with the police man responsible for the cover up retired.
Salvo meets Anna Tropeano an unmarried teacher who had become friends with the dead woman and with who Salvo finds attractive as well as intelligent and defensive about her friend. Salvo is able to get her initially to admit that the dead woman had a lover and subsequently that he is an antique dealer although she did not have his name and address. They became friends and as with his friend Montalbano liked to share information about the case he was working on. In this respect he is indiscreet and unprofessional and uses the media when it suits his purposes in order to achieve justice, condemning those who use the media to promote their personal positions.
Montalbano then meets the husband of the murdered woman who explains that he met her when treating her brother for an injury and who had then moved to live and work in New York. The young woman had been raped by an uncle when she was 15 years who brought her up with her brother after their parents had died. She been the mistress of an industrialist who had provided for her financially but she resented being a kept woman. The Doctor then explained that at the age of 50 he become irreversibly impotent and the marriage had been agreed as a way of preventing allegations being made against him that he was a homosexual, while she would have the security and the freedom to live the life she wanted. They had become close friends having no secrets and he had willingly provided the funds for her to create the home in Sicily. This was to be her life away from Bologna and he had not known the name of her hotel where she stayed while the construction work was undertaken.
The next development is the owner of a garage who remembered seeing the dead woman when she called at his garage on the night of the murder and the man she was with was not that of police killed student shown on TV.
The case break through comes however when the woman living below the recluse professional violinist contacts to say that the dead woman had called at home of her neighbour. The woman had discovered a violin at the property of her husband and knowing of the violinist having heard him performed had been able to get him to at the instrument which he suspect was rare and valuable. He had confirmed this and advised to let him keep the violin safe ( and play) rather than at the unoccupied property until she had arranged its sale to pay off the debt of lover who had become meshed with criminals and loan sharks through his gambling. The Maestro had given her an inexpensive but quality violin to keep in the case at the home fearing the original would be at risk. When Montalbano returned to the house he finds the violin case and the Maestro confirms that the violin inside is mass produced and worthless. The Maestro reveals why he had become a recluse which Salvo fully understands.
Salvo is then able to work out and prove that the lover had returned secretly to Sicily using a false name together with a criminal contact, The man had killed the woman face down because he could not bear her to see him after they had sex. His action had been seen by the student. The criminal contact had collected him and the violin and returned to Bologna to dispose to a private purchaser thus getting twice as much as would have been sold on the open market. The murderer shoots himself when confronted by Salvo.
I had the impression of less reference to food until checking and discovered a dish of fresh anchovies which he dresses in lemon juice, olive oil and freshly ground black pepper. He offers to share a large serving of haddock baked with a sauce of anchovies and vinegar to add to it. He enjoys baby Octopus alla Luciana- fresh tomato sauce with added hot pepper and garlic.
There is a gentle dish to tinnirume which is steamed flower tops of courgettes. Caponata which he has a generous helping is a dish made with sautéed aubergines, tomato, green pepper, garlic, onion celery, black olives, olive oil, anchovies and vinegar and served as an appetizer !!! A neopolitana coffee is made by turn a tin of coffee upside down at the point of boiling allowing the hot water to filter down through the coffee grounds by force of gravity.
I could not understand when he had taken a large cassata on the long journey to visit Franca and the boy he an Livia had intended adopting. This version is in fact a traditional Sicilian sponge cake filled with sweetened ricotta(cheese) candid fruit, raisins, pine nuts, pistachios and jam, usually apricot.
The violin was estimated to have a value of between two and three billion lire which is said to be up to £1 million.
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