Camilleri, author of Montalbano detective series, dies

ROME >> Author Andrea Camilleri, creator of the best-selling Commissario Montalbano series about a likable, though oft-brooding smalltown Sicilian police chief who mixed humanity with pragmatism to solve crimes, died in a Rome hospital Wednesday. He was 93.

Italy’s RAI state TV, which produced wildly popular TV versions of his detective stories, interrupted its programming to announce his death and comment on his works.

Rome’s hospital system also announced the death, a month after the long-ailing Camilleri was hospitalized with heart problems and complications from a broken hip.

Camilleri’s books — most set in his native Sicily — sold some 25 million copies in Italy, where literary best-sellers are usually measured by the tens of thousands.

He had legions of readers overseas, too, thanks to the enduring popularity of his character, police chief Salvo Montalbano.

Italian state TV versions of the series were so popular that even repeats consistently snagged the highest audience ratings. The shows were also exported to Latin America, Australia and across Europe.

The Italian actor who played Montalbano in every episode, Luca Zingaretti, wrote on Instagram: “Farewell maestro and friend.”

Referring to how his character would brusquely answer his phone, Zingaretti added that “every time I will say, even alone, in my head, ‘Montalbano sono’ (it’s Montalbano), wherever you went, you will smile, maybe smoking a cigarette and winking at me in a sign of understanding, just like the last time we saw each other,” in Sicily.

Camilleri’s position at the top of the book sales charts in Italy — he often had several books high in the rankings in the same week — was even more remarkable because the author sprinkled many of his works with words that many Italians aren’t familiar with. He affectionately borrowed from the dialect of his Sicilian youth, which Camilleri saw as better lending itself to expressing characters’ emotions.