Ever been in the Mediterranean in the summer? The heat isn’t just a measurement; it’s a physical presence of its own, impossibly oppressing, driving you closer and closer to the edge...

Sicilian Inspector Salvo Montalbano usually takes his vacation in mid-August, during the worst of it, but this year is covering for one of his staff. Surprisingly, there’s no tirade of complaint from his girlfriend Livia over the change in plans. Based on meeting her in prior books, this qualifies as a minor miracle.  A day later, Livia calls back to have Sal find a nearby vacation house for her best friend Laura and Laura’s family; Livia will still come, but stay with them. It’s a toss-up which makes this more impossible—the demands this palace must satisfy or the fact that he’s told to find it two weeks before their August 1st arrival, after everything but the dregs has been occupied through reservations made long before.

Montalbano manages to find an almost acceptable villa, which generates complaints but no serious issues (well, other than an almost biblical succession of pestilent plagues) until Laura's young son goes missing and finding him means also finding secrets buried under the villa. Montalbano can certainly handle the resulting investigation; it’s the personal side he inevitably gets exactly wrong. The result is August heat from all directions, starting with anguished departures and Livia's refusal to talk before vanishing on a cruise with her handsome male cousin, investigations into a variety of possibly inter-related crimes, and the sweltering effect of life in an office devoid of fans.

This is a book filled with all the color, life, passion, humor and frustrated despair of its setting. Montalbano is very real - a capital C Character, who writes actual letters to himself about the investigation instead of notes, revels in the local cuisine (NEVER read one of these books when you’re hungry) and all other aspects of life, is intelligent and very good at his job but worries and second guesses himself into knots over that and everything else.  Witty, experienced, cynical in some ways, naïve bordering on innocent in others; passionate, generous, principled and egotistical all at once. The people around him are just as vividly believable individuals, not just roles to suit the plot, while the setting practically pulses with the Mediterranean August heat of the title. All wrapped around an interesting series of puzzles in a compact, fast read. Highly recommended.