Today I begin my adoration of the second series shown in the UK of Commissario Salvo Montalbano although I will keep up a diary as I watch or listen to sport and my day on day activities.
While there are other characters in the series, the second being shown on BBC Four in original Sicilian, Italian and Sicilian Italian (reminding me of Gibraltar Spanish and English) Commissario (Inspector) Salvo Montalbano dominates each episode from start to finish.
One reference describes Salvo as honest, loyal and decent but I have to disagree. Although Salvo is basically honest he is prepared to break rules and turn the blind eye but always in the course of justice and fairness as well as from his humanitarianism. He is a good guy. He has strong views about integrity, especially of the police dislikes those who pretend to be what they are not or adopt or misuse the power and privileges of office. He has rime for Aging Mafia bosses who want settle issues in the traditional way as long as they know he will take action against them if they are caught breaking the law.
I describe him best as a man who cares and in last night‘s programmes he cannot bear to look or yet another body of a slaughtered young girl. He is loyal to his men and there are no female police at his station or it appears to be the situation in Sicily, but while his head wants him to be loyal to his long term woman friend, Livia who lives and works in Genoa on the mainland, he only resists some of the opportunities which come his way by women, often younger women who adore his looks, his manner and his role.
In the first season shown on the BBC between February and April she appears in several episodes but so far the second series which commenced in August she has only be heard on the telephone. I do not know is this was a writing decision of the author or something which the TV series adapted because the actress was not available to be filmed although he has engaged in phone calls with her in several episodes of the second series to date
It looked as if the couple would marry and live together during the first series, but the truth is Salvo likes his way of life, his home on the beach and his pasta and his fish. Good food at his favourite restaurant or eating out on his balcony overlooking the sea are as important if not more important than a companion in his bed. Livia and the others with whom he has a relationship know that they are a poor second when he is involved in a troubling case, but when on holiday or with a free weekend, he is with them as any woman could wish, or any partner in a same sex relationship.
I will also remind that while the BBC is showing 16 episodes in two seasons this year in terms of published scheduling, they were first shown in Italy from 1999(2) 2000(2) 2001(2) 2002(4) 2005(2) 2006(2) 2008 (4) AND 2011(3). I am acquiring the books to read 11 so far with six episodes written only for TV and will acquire series 1 DVD 10 episodes in the future. I did write about the first episode in the present series Turning Point based on the book Rounding he Mark so that leaves the five others since to cover.
I will also sat at the outset that setting of Sicily is gorgeous as is the orchestral accompaniment and I am constantly struck by the lack of traffic in his town of Vigata. There is grandeur about the towns and often the houses and flats he visits are huge buildings with large rooms, tall ceilings, great wooden double doors and antique furniture. There is a feeling of space, light and warmth although sometimes it is so hot that they struggle to cope and when it rains, it floods down as I have experienced.
While the series is about the work and life of the Commissario he had a team of three men who have been with him throughout. His deputy Mimi (Domenico Augello), a ladies man who is now married with a child but with a roving eye which he finds difficult to control did consider leaving for the mainland when he became involved with a police woman he had met on a course or conference
Their assistant (Guissope) Fazio, is loyal, dependable and often taken for granted and (Agatino) Catarella, came top of the computer course which amazed everyone, usually goes into doors which he bands, often forgets what he has come into say, manages the front desk, the communications system and the police station as far as one can judge. In addition to Livia Mimi’s wife Beba Beatrice di Leo has become a regular while Mimi’s sister and brother law are visited as Salvo keeps contact with the fostered/ adopted boy that he and Livia nearly adopted after his mother was murdered and his father was found dead in an early first season episode.
I begin with latest episode The Wings of the Sphinx which engaged me throughout and touches on the influence of the Mafia and politicians and others have for self protection. A young woman is found dead, naked on a beach with her face obliterated and a butterfly Tattoo on one shoulder, but she did not die there and had been dead for some 24 hours. Salvo works out that she probably died somewhere which was closed on a Sunday and the body removed to be found before the premises opened. He arranges for the photo of the Tattoo to be shown on TV and he is contacted by an old man who had a carer arranged from him when the relative who looks after him had to be away. The girl was Russian and lived in, she had come to Italy via an organisation and then was helped by an organisation which liked to be called an association and which used volunteers to recruit prostitutes and girl who worked in clubs to save them for a better life and looked after then at an establishment which could accommodate over a dozen of the girls. This girl had suddenly left. It was not the dead girl however but the Tattoo is identical
When Salvo is going home one night he is overtaken by a fast car driven by Ingrid who was part of a previous story with an important husband now a Member of Parliament in Rome, spending a lot of time away. She is also a womanly with a history and I believe she had a temporary relationship with Montalbano. She cancels her engagement claiming a headache after learning that Salvo is on his own and that a meal has been prepared by his housekeeper. Over the meal she asks about his current cases and he mentions the murder and the Tattoo. This startles the woman who mentions that she a live in young female help with a Tattoo on her shoulder who had come from Russia and who had disappeared taken jewellery with her.
The girl has been located by her husband’s accountant who comes to the station after being contacted by the friend and he mentions the association, a charitable body which is run by a priest akin to a bishop. This is an influential man who criticises Montalbano for being five minutes late and who explains that while he is the Patron and Treasurer, he has not met one of the young women in the five years of his involvement. He puts Salvo in contact with his Director of Operations and from that meeting Salvo is taken to where the girls live by two of the volunteers including the man who recruits the girls on Saturday evenings. Afterwards there is a complaint that Montalbano had undertaken a raid on the organisation and he is given only four days to complete investigation by his superiors and told not to upset or involve the Association further except without exceptionally good grounds. Neither of these girls can be found nor the murdered girl named.
Then the elderly man calls on Montalbano and says he saw the girl when returning from a visit by bus heading in the direction of a Parish Church. Salvo visits and finds the priest is working out and a former boxer who denies having contact with the girl or knowing her present whereabouts but expresses strong disapproval of the charitable organisation. Salvo is convinced the priest does know where the girl is but is protecting her.
There are then two developments which enable him to begin to solve the mysteries. The son of his visiting housekeeper who is in prison (covered in a previous episode) asks to see Montalbano to mention unofficially that a hardened criminal who had shared his cell had admitted to being in love with a Russian girl who had lived with him and the man had changed as a consequence. The girl had a butterfly on her shoulder. The man and the girl are not at home when the Commissario visits.
He is then contacted by the fire service because of a fire at a paint shop which is unusual as well as suspicious and where the owner lives in a flat above. The evidence is that the fire started within and where there are no sings of forced entry but it is not an insurance fraud as the man is of good means. Salvo Fazio visits and do a double act in the questioning. They check if the man has a revolver which Salvo points out they will be able to check if it was recently fired. They ask if he has a safe or where does he keep the takings from the weekend and he shows them his desk where the taking before the fire are still kept. Although they leave they expect the man to come to them with an admission. He had been woken at night to find someone in the flat and later followed to where they were riffling the till. He had called for the individual to stop and the pulled trigger killing the person with the second shot fired. This accounted for the traces of material found inside the skull as the thief had covered their face. There have also been traces of a substance used to create gilt effect under the finger nails and when her had fired a quantity of the substance had covered the body. He had found that the person was dead and the female cleaner. He had disposed of the body where it was found and thought he had got away with it but then the news had mentioned that the persons teeth and been smashed by the force of the bullet and would been still at the scene of the murder. For this reason he had attempted to burn down the shop and not just the clothing of the girl and his own.
Then the man who did the recruiting is shot in his car in the face. How can this be? The answer comes with a message from the son of the cleaner in prison to say the likely whereabouts of the criminal who had shared a cell. It was his girl who had been killed and he had taken his revenge in the same manner on the man who recruited her. The man is captured at the place where the son of the cleaner housekeeper said he was likely to be hiding.
Before the capture Salvo received a message from the former boxer priest to say that the missing girl who worked for the old man was with him as was one of the other girls who had been badly beaten up and had come to his home for refuge via the girl already with him. They were both willing to testify in court their story. There were four girls from Russia who had come to Italy with the promise of work via an agency whose families had struggled to find the money for a ticket. Each group of girls was given a different Tattoo and in order to repay the full cost of their passage and stay to those sending them and their families they not only had to work in the clubs but go with men afterwards. The Welfare association seemed a good way as the organisation they would also arrange for their release from their existing contract and commitments. However they were then told to steal jewellery or valuables from where they were placed and they would be able to retain a quarter of the value. It was from a photograph of all four girls together that Salvo was told the dead girl friend had been the girl friend of the criminal. Because of his backgrounds and involvement the welfare group had been unable to do anything when she left them and went to live in with the man but she had wanted to send money to her family and had persuaded to be allowed to work further and agreed to go for the weekend takings at the paint store. The priest urges Salvo to ensure those involved go to prison and he says he will do his best. He is told to pass on the case which he willingly does because of the wish to spend a few days with Livia. He tells the person taking over and the media sufficient to ensure the organisation is exposed despite all those seeking who protect it.
Before saying more about the relationship with Livia there is one other story in the episode which has its amusing moments. Unattractive older women call to say her husband was kidnapped and where inquiries reveal he had money with him and his passport. There has been no request for a ransom although a delay sometimes occurs in such cases. When the media become interested in the story a business man contacts Salvo to say that on a visit to Cuba where he has three girl friends he had seen the missing man in a club with an attractive young woman. He appeals for discretion as he has a wife and child back in Sicily. Salvo arranges for his face to be blocked from the photographic proof with him and breaks the news to his wife who denies it is husband or that he would do something like this. The husband reappears saying he was released and his passport taken as well as the money on him. It appears he is financially dependent on his wife and the kidnapping ploy was a way to get a short break away from her.
At the dinner with Ingrid Salvo admits that he got into a rage at Livia when she returned for the hotel with a male friend and his yacht and he had admitted to her he had a short relationship with a young girl. They had broken up and although he wanted contact again he was not sure of the reception. Ingrid says that given the length of time they were together he should persevere and he attempts to ring her several times without success. Eventually she rings and it is agreed that they will spend a few days together at a neutral venue, but only when the current case is ended.
Because oft he way the case develops Salvo is able to meet her flight and as she has said if he fails to arrive she will return home he books the next fight back to Genoa where she lives. He arrives in the rain and finds that she has set off without her mobile which explains what he was unable to contact her during the day to explain what was happening. She instead of returning had gone to his home when he is able to contact on the land line. It is left open if they get together on the remaining days of his holiday.
The previous Saturday’s episode was called August Flame (22 September) with the story from the book August Heat and Mimi has rented a holiday home from where their son disappears and both parents are frantic. Salvo investigates and finds that the boy has gone exploring and has found his way into a sealed second holiday flat built in the cliff side partly under the second. This has nearly been completed with doors and windows ready to be installed but in a way which is not recognisable as a flat from the grounds of the home where Mini and his family are staying.
In a corner there is large chest which when opened reveals the remains of a fifteen year old girl. She has lain there for a number of years and is found to be the identical twin of someone who is now a young woman and who makes a play for Montalbano as soon as she meets him.
Suspicion falls on a number of people as the owner and developer of the holiday home project are identified, including a cranky neighbour while the developer appears to have a cast iron alibi and he is eventually trapped by using the girl as bait and arranging to meet him at the lower home which is the process of being sold after planning permission is contained. The two men who worked on the home are interviewed and eventually eliminated from the investigation. Because of the risk Montalbano gives he girl his gun and when she is attacked she shoots the murderer of her sister dead before Montalbano who is waiting nearby out of sight can intervene. He takes responsibility for the death and the parents of the dead girl buy the holiday complex to leave empty because it had become the grave for one of their daughters. I was left feeling unhappy and concerned at the way the episode ended feeling that the girl had shot the man too readily.
The previous week, the Game of Three Cards was an original telescript with two stories which as far as I can remember are unrelated apart from featuring two single minded women one I will describe as sexually gorgeous who is the wife of a wanted villain on the run who commands the attention of Mimi, causing Salvo concern because of the potential threat to Mimi’s marriage with Beba (Beatrice). Because of the attention he has given to the wife it is Salvo who discovers that the home has several possible exits and possibly a hideaway enabling the husband to visit and leave without being spotted by those keeping watch. The criminal is eventually caught to the relief of Salvo while the wife continues to strut her stuff about the town.
The main story arises when the Commissario is approached before eating at his favoured restaurant by the accountant of a constructor called Tarantino who is said to have been killed when full of drink close to his home in a hit and run. The accountant is convinced there is something wrong with the declared finding. The significant first piece of evidence is that several years before, as much as twenty years prior to the hit and run death a man Rocco Pensinni was convicted of the premeditated death of the partner of Tarantino in order to be able to marry the wife who had become his lover. Why he should have killed then killed partner and faked the death to look like a hit run was something which Salvo rightly questions. It is when a second man is found dead close to the isolated home of a Shepherd and whose features look as if they have been altered that separate events begin to link up. The man, Granieri has been away from Sicily for two decades and was part of a Mafia family, the same family with whom the constructor is found to have had dealings enabling him to win contracts. With the death of his partner he was able to control the whole company.
Granieri is found to have had a distinctive voice, obtained via a phone message. A key person in establishing the connections is the sister of Rocco who is blind but remembers a visitor posing a utility official who called on the day of the murder for which her brother was convicted. She identifies the man as the same as the voice. She also mentions that on the night in question she and her brother had been invited out but he stayed home and she had gone alone. He was staying in because his lover had called and said she would visit as she had done on many previous occasions with the sister hearing her footsteps and going to room of her brother. In this instance she had not come and therefore he had no alibi.
What emerges from flash backs is that the woman wanted the relationship to continue as it was but Rocco could not share with the husband and threatened to tell the husband, his employer that the relationship was continuing having promised that it had ended after it had been discovered by the husband. The lover had threatened to shoot himself thus disclosing to the wife that he had a weapon in his room. What had then happened is that Tarantino wanting to get rid of his partner and the woman Renata de Mora wanting to get rid of her lover and husband had told the assassin about the gun and he had taken it posing as an official and then Renata had failed to turn up which would have given her lover an alibi while the husband was shot. This belief is confirmed after the police had circulated a photo of Granieri and Rocco calls at the station to say he had been contacted by Renata when he was released from prison but he had not responded at first but had then gone unannounced the following day and seen the man in the photo having a heated conversation with his former lover. The man had gone off as soon as Renata had seen him approaching. He had also seen the man observing him at his home.
Salvo put the case against her to Renata and at first she tries to bluff but then admits knowing there is no proof with the death of both the contractor and Granieri. Granieri has come back and killed the contractor although I cannot remember if this was on behalf of the Mafia or on his own account. Rocco visits to say he is making a fresh start in Rome and appears amazing relaxed and accepting about the injustice which led him to spend two decades in jail. The reason why Granieri was found dead close to the Shepherd‘s home is established when it is found that the dead man is the son of the Shepherd. He has killed his son finding out the kind of man he was and pleads with Salvo to be allowed to end his own life with the gun he used on his son. This happens.
In Patience of the Spider which is based on a novel Montalbano is still on official on sick leave when a young girl goes missing and the whole community becomes concerned. The assumption is that she has been kidnapped for ransom. My recollection is that early on I worked out what actually happened and was delighted that Salvo finds a way to temper official justice with great humanity.
Salvo is woken by Catarella at six in the morning and is his usually khack handedness in explaining the situation. At first he is told the scooter of a young girl has been found and then when told the owner is missing Salvo is still not convinced it is a matter for himself and asked for Mimi and Fazio who are also at the scene which only underlines his reaction to getting the call. It is Mimi who has told Catarella to contact his boss and still unconvinced Montalbano challenges Mimi on arriving at the scene to be told the situation looks bad.
I am going to tell the story from the solution backwards. Many years ago the brother of the wife of the girl who has been kidnapped needed a huge amount of money which the family raised but never got back even when their daughter needed money to go away to study. The wife had become sick with the a situation in which despite their lovely home they had come to live on the pension of the husband and the help of his brother who had also loved the wife to the extent that he devoted his life to the couple and his niece rather than lead a separate life apart from his practice as a medical doctor.
Having rescued him the other uncle had turned his back on the family and having prospered was embarking on a political career. His sister’s health had continued to deteriorate, and she had taken to her bed and required 24 hour care shared by her husband and their daughter.
At first Salvo speculates that the daughter had run off unable to cope, perhaps a break down or perhaps she has found someone else other than her boyfriend who is studying law with the ambition to join the police force. Salvo is able to gradually to work out what I suspect from the outset that this was no real kidnapping but a staged action to gain revenge and destroy the reputation of the uncle who had betrayed them and destroyed the life of his sister.
The plan had been executed with the help of the brother doctor and the discrediting was successful and when the Commissario makes the point that he cannot allow them to keep the money the girl explains that it has already been distributed to a dozen international charities, Salvo who has said the visit is not officially is doubly pleased, to have his suspicions confirmed and by finding that the girl was well motivated and has an important future as she goes off to work for an international agency.
He had learned that the girl and the boyfriend did not have sex until the day she disappeared and that on returning to the family she had broken with the young man. Given that she made application for the welfare work months before Salvo knows that she had planned everything during the hours she had spent at her mother‘s bedside.
He had been able to trace where the girl had been kept by enlarge one of the photos which the alleged kidnappers had sent. This enabled him also to get to where the money had been replaced with newsprint notes before the media arrived and printed that the ransom had not been paid. In fact despite the publicity against the uncle would be politician, he had been contacted within moments of the kidnap and asked to pay the ransom which he was willing to do, especially as the kidnapped girl was a close friend of his daughter. The contact was made hours before the same demand was made to the father the girl. It was all fair and a good form of justice.
In the second of the second season episodes Equal Tine Montalbano is convinced hat what appears to have become a Mafia war because of killing is not what it seems but it is only late on the he appreciates there is a connection between the death and the disappearance of a girl from the Ukraine who had been living as a live in help to an elderly man. He had reported to her missing only a couple of days after she had not returned from her day off. We the viewers had seen that a girl with a scooter and been chased by two men in a car and appeared to have gone for help at a home of man living in an isolated cottage.
Catarella when out collecting snails which a relative cooked into a special dish for him then discovers the scooter which he brings into town. Later Salvo finds that on her day off she girl, Eva, had met up with two other economic migrants who express great concern for the welfare of their friend. By checking out the area where the scoot was found Salvo comes to the cottage and its owner who used to be called half witted but also harmless. It is Catarella who also puts Salvo on he train of what happened when he draws attention that although the cottage holder kept a couple of sheep the quantity of dropping suggests visits of a substantial number. In order to confirm the theory he arranges for one of the female friends of the missing girl to dress up exactly and Salvo bring the man and the girl together and from this the man confirms that a Shepherd who it is subsequently established is called the Puppeteer calls on his route around the hills with his flock, brings him cheese, bread and wine when staying the night and had had taken the girl with him as he had on a previous occasion in the instance of another girl from the area who had disappeared several years before. The unit track the Shepherd to his home where they come under fire and it is Catarella who kills the man before Salvo or other members the team are killed. The girl is found and is taken to hospital when he friends are with her. One of the friends gives to Salvo copies of photos she found in the girl’s underwater draw which reveal that he girl had been seeing a married member of a Mafia family the Bonspeniero’s that has started the Mafia War and which Salvo had major doubts.
The man had run a quarry business for his father and his wife tolerated his affairs with girls until in this instance it became serious and he wanted to leave her for the younger woman. What is then established is that the wife and used one of her men to kill her husband who was first hit on the head and then shot to make it look like a Mafia revenge killing. She had then made the mistake of ordering the death of the girl who recovers and is able to confirm the relationship and intention for them to be together with Salvo who summons the heads of the two Mafia families, he orders the man responsible for the original murder to give himself up and fort he wife to present herself at the police station for questioning. The man gives himself up, but the woman had to be arrested at the Quarry at which she had taken over its management. She commits suicide rather than be taken. I have thirteen of the fourteen books of those translated into English including the episode next week. There are two later books yet to be translated which included.
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