This episode has a theme which is similar to ‘Death on the High Seas’.  Notably someone is killed, the mafia are involved and a settlement needs to be reached before war breaks out.

It opens with a bank robbery of a small branch yet has an unusually large number of safety deposit boxes.  Whoever got in did so by knowing the correct access codes.  It transpires that all bar one box have been accessed by just two men, both of whom work for the Sinagras.  Well I won’t reveal who did what and why but I will say this; further murders were necessary to prevent a war.

The main sub-plot involves a female clairvoyant and the death of a doctor.  The two are linked by the fact that the doctor killed her brother while he was in the Italian SS during world war II.  Bullets are found in her suitcase which match the one used to kill the doctor and yet it is not her.

The final sub-plot features Salvo Montalbano and a woman named Stella Parenti.  It has been a month since Livia and Salve took a break (see my blog on episode 2/3 ‘Death on the High Seas’) and Salvo is finding it hard.  To aid in his investigation of the robbery, Salvo turns to the bank across the road.  It just so happens that the woman in charge takes a shine to him.  Matters come to a head when, days later and after a meal together, she invites him in.

I like murder mysteries which do not reveal the culprit, or at least keep you guessing.  Andrea Camilleri reveals the story a little at a time but never enough to give the game away too soon.  For example, Salvo escorts an old woman home but you are left guessing how she fits into the story.

As a bit of a romantic, I want to see Salvo and Livia get back together but this is a television show so you have to have the ‘will they, won’t they?’ cliché.  Still, there is a reason why it is used so much, because it works.