New York: Viking, (2002) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - The first book in the award-winning and darkly humorous Inspector Montalbano mystery series, set in the author's native Sicily, Italy. Translated by Stephen Sartarelli (originally published in Italian in 1994). Basis for the television series. SIGNED by the author on a blank preliminary page. Although Camilleri is best known in the English speaking world as the creator of this popular series, in which the inspector shares his own love for the culture and food of Sicily as well as his hatred of corruption and injustice, he was also a major cultural figure in Italy, and in the arts across Europe, and books signed by him are quite scarce. Author and translator's notes. 340 pp. ISBN: 0-670030929.