Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Italian crime novels

I've been a huge fan of author Donna Leon for awhile.  My mom discovered her several years ago, and when she discovered she wrote mysteries based in Venice, she just had to get me Death at La Fenice one Christmas.  Since reading the first one, I've read every single one I could get my hands on.   All 15 I've run across.  Half.com is one of my best friends when it comes to books, so that is how I got a lot of them.  Today I decided to check up on some of my favorite authors... since Leon released a book last year I figured she was due for a new one soon, and I knew another one my favorite authors, Andrea Camilleri, who's Inspector Montalbano series is based on an Italian policeman (in Sicily) has a recently translated book being released in Feb.  He writes in Italian.

I checked Amazon, saw the new Leon novel will be released in April, but I also ran across a list of Leon's novels in chronological order.  Even though I knew I'd read them all, I checked anyway.  I knew wrong.  The list had 2 books on it I'd heard of, but assumed they were the British titling of a book I'd read.  Wrong again.  Here is the list per Wikipedia:

  1. Death at La Fenice (1992)
  2. Death in a Strange Country (1993)
  3. The Anonymous Venetian (1994) aka Dressed for Death
  4. A Venetian Reckoning (1995) aka Death and Judgment
  5. Acqua Alta (1996) aka Death in High Water
  6. The Death of Faith (1997) aka Quietly in Their Sleep
  7. A Noble Radiance (1997)
  8. Fatal Remedies (1999)
  9. Friends in High Places (2000)
  10. A Sea of Troubles (2001)
  11. Wilful Behaviour (2002)
  12. Uniform Justice (2003)
  13. Doctored Evidence (2004)
  14. Blood from a Stone (2005)
  15. Through a Glass Darkly (2006)
  16. Suffer the Little Children (2007)
  17. The Girl of His Dreams (2008)
  18. About Face (2009)

Books nos. 10 and 11 I haven't read and I can't find on any of my usual sites in the States/Canada (except for over $100 USD... no way).   So I decided to check Amazon UK and lo and behold, was able to find them both, in paperback, for only $30 USD including shipping to Canada!  I absolutely love finding books I haven't yet read by my favorite authors.

So, I decided to check on Andrea Camilleri.  Again, this is Wikipedia's list:

  1. The Shape of Water - 2002 (La forma dell’acqua - 1994)
  2. The Terracotta Dog - 2002 (Il cane di terracotta - 1996)
  3. The Snack Thief - 2003 (Il ladro di merendine - 1996)
  4. The Voice of the Violin - 2003 (La voce del violino - 1997)
  5. Excursion to Tindari - 2005 (La gita a Tindari - 2000)
  6. The Scent of the Night - 2005 (L’odore della notte - 2001)
  7. Rounding the Mark - 2006 (Il giro di boa - 2003)
  8. The Patience of the Spider - 2007 (La pazienza del ragno - 2004)
  9. The Paper Moon - 2008 (La Luna di Carta - 2005)
  10. August Heat - 2006 (La Vampa d'Agosto - 2006)
  11. The Sphinx's Wings - 2006 (Le Ali della Sfinge - 2006)
  12. The Sand Path - 2007 (La pista di Sabbia - 2007)
  13. The Potter's Field - 2008 (Il campo del vasaio - 2008)
  14. The Age of Doubt - 2008 (L'età del dubbio) - 2008

August Heat is the novel that is being released in English in February... I'm so excited I can't wait!  I have contemplated trying to read his novels in Italian, but would have to get a hold of one first (hello Amazon UK!).  Maybe a future project...  As it is, I am anxiously awaiting his next release in English and the Donna Leon books in the mail!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi-

We saw that you'd blogged about Camilleri's Montalbano books and thought you might be interested in a piece on the Picador blog from Stephen Sartarelli, on the subject of translating Camilleri's Montalbano books: http://bit.ly/wIe1E


Best wishes,
Picador blog team