One of the best things about this series as translated by Stephen Sartarelli, is the inclusion of uniquely Italian sayings in the back of the book. If you don't know the language, you'll need to flip back to the notes to understand everything completely.

Andrea Camilleri is a gifted writer. He can smoothly move from portraying vivid scenery to describing hilarious actions performed by inept policemen to communicating the taste of mouth-watering Sicilian fish dishes. Who else could come up with a skeletal old priest who drinks milk from baby bottles?

I was completely captivated by this novel. The super-intelligent Inspector Montalbano finds himself involved in mysteries both young and old...I can't wait to read the next in the series.

I liked this book better than the first Montalbano book. I am not really quite sure why, but I think it helped that I was more familiar with his writing style and characters. I especially liked the part that dealt with the WWII case, which took longer than I excepted to get to in the book. Terra-Cotta Dog feels authentically Sicilian. I really loved how Montalbano, a normally confident man, did not like doing press conferences and did not want a promotion. These personality quarks help to make Montalbano unique.

This was a really well written mystery. I really enjoyed the pacing and how everything was revealed. Not a bad ending either!