Review of The Sound of the Violin

In the second of this Italian detective series the eponymous inspector is involved in a crash when his driver swerves to avoid a chicken as it crosses the road. The hit a stationary car parked outside a house but when they ring the bell nobody answers. Montalbano returns later and has a look round the house; he finds the woman who owned the car but she is dead. As he was there illegally he asks an old woman he knows to call it in then races to the scene. There is a problem though; the house is on the boundary of two police districts and the body is on the wrong side of the line. The police from the other district soon rap up the case; fatally shooting the suspect in the process. Of course Montalbano is convinced they got the wrong man; the dead man was rather simple yet the killer had taken his time to make sure no evidence remained; also why was there a violin case open at the dead woman's house if she did not play. As with most good murder mysteries there are enough suspects; the husband, the lover, somebody she had rejected or the mysterious master violin player who lived quite close and had been seen with her.

After a fine opening episode this series continues well; Luca Zingaretti is great in the lead role; managing to be funny without ever appearing to play for laughs. That isn't to suggest this isn't a proper drama though; there is a good mystery and the character clearly cares about solving the case. The conclusion is somewhat down beat but was believable and not over-dramatic. Away from the mystery the writers hadn't forgotten the unfinished business from the last episode; Montalbano visits the boy he rescued and hoped to adapt, along with his girlfriend Livia, but learns that he is happy with the family he is with and doesn't want to move away; this brought some emotion to proceedings without distracting too much from the main story. Overall I think this was a fine second episode and I look forward to seeing more episodes of this fine series.