The Safety Net

It was the phrase 'the only thing Papa filmed that year' - the fact that a man on death's doorstep would make the effort to film a patch of wall - that really sparked Montalbano's curiosity . . .
When Inspector Montalbano's town of Vigàta is selected as the filming location for a new movie set in the 1950s, the director asks locals to dig out old photographs from that time.
And that is how engineer Ernesto Sabatello stumbles upon a mystery. In his attic, he discovers a series of films shot by his father between 1958 and 1963, always on the same day - 27 March - and always of the same subject: the outside wall of a country house. Intrigued, Montalbano begins to investigate the meaning behind these peculiar films.
Meanwhile, a local school is attacked by a group of armed men. As shock ripples through the community and the police attempt to track down the perpetrators, Montalbano must consider taking a closer look at the students themselves and delving into the world of social media.
'A magnificent series of novels' Sunday Times
'The best company in crime fiction today' Guardian
'One of fiction's greatest detectives . . . Utterly gripping' Daily Mirror

Andrea Camilleri was one of Italy's most famous contemporary writers. The Inspector Montalbano series, which has sold over 65 million copies worldwide, has been translated into thirty-two languages and was adapted for Italian television, screened on BBC4. The Potter's Field, the thirteenth book in the series, was awarded the Crime Writers' Association's International Dagger for the best crime novel translated into English. In addition to his phenomenally successful Inspector Montalbano series, he was also the author of the historical comic mysteries Hunting Season and The Brewer of Preston. He died in Rome in July 2019.