
The Wings of the Sphinx
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $17.47
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Grover Gardner
-
By:
-
Andrea Camilleri
About this listen
Things are not going well for Inspector Salvo Montalbano. His relationship with Livia is once again on the rocks and - acutely aware of his age - he is beginning to grow weary of the endless violence he encounters. Then a young woman is found dead, her face half shot off and only a tattoo of a sphinx moth giving any hint of her identity. The tattoo links her to three similarly marked girls - all victims of the underworld sex trade - who have been rescued from the Mafia night-club circuit by a prominent Catholic charity. The problem is, Montalbano's inquiries elicit an outcry from the Church and the three other girls are all missing.
ANDREA CAMILLERI is an international best-selling author. He lives in Rome.
©2006 by Selerio editore via Siracusa; translation 2009 by Stephen Sartarelli (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Marlow Murder Club
- Marlow Murder Club, Book 1
- By: Robert Thorogood
- Narrated by: Nicolette McKenzie
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Judith Potts is 77 years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper. One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local vicar.
-
-
An awful lot like Thursday Murder Club!
- By Margaret on 06-11-22
By: Robert Thorogood
-
Alison Larkin Presents: The Secret Adversary, Murder on the Links, and The Mysterious Affair at Styles
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin, James Warwick
- Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three critically acclaimed recordings are joined together in this dazzling Agatha Christie Triple Bill, read by award-winning narrators Alison Larkin and James Warwick, star of the Partners in Crime TV series on Masterpiece Theater.
-
-
Pitch perfect narration of Agatha Christie!
- By Mary Katherine Worth on 10-18-19
By: Agatha Christie
-
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Lisette Lecat
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mma "Precious" Ramotswe sets up a detective agency in Botswana on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, making her the only female detective in the country. At first, cases are hard to come by. But eventually, troubled people come to Precious with a variety of concerns. Potentially philandering husbands, seemingly schizophrenic doctors, and a missing boy who may have been killed by witch doctors all compel Precious to roam about in her tiny van, searching for clues.
-
-
Transcends its Genre
- By Gene on 12-07-03
-
The Return of the Dancing Master
- By: Henning Mankell
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stefan Lindman, a young police officer recently diagnosed with mouth cancer, decides to investigate the murder of his former colleague, but is soon enmeshed in a mystifying case with no witnesses and no apparent motives. Terrified of the disease that could take his life, Lindman becomes more and more reckless as he unearths the chilling links between Molin's death and an underground neo-Nazi network that runs further and deeper than he could ever have imagined.
-
-
Good history, great writing
- By Ann L Omae on 03-12-09
By: Henning Mankell
-
The Keeper of Lost Causes
- Department Q, Book 1
- By: Jussi Adler-Olsen
- Narrated by: Erik Davies
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carl Mørck used to be one of Denmark’s best homicide detectives. Then a hail of bullets destroyed the lives of two fellow cops, and Carl - who didn’t draw his weapon - blames himself. So a promotion is the last thing he expects. But Department Q is a department of one, and Carl’s got only a stack of cold cases for company. His colleagues snicker, but Carl may have the last laugh, because one file keeps nagging at him: A liberal politician vanished five years earlier and is presumed dead. But she isn’t dead...yet.
-
-
Dark, Cold, and Danish
- By Ted on 11-28-12
-
Mystery Man
- By: Colin Bateman
- Narrated by: Stephen Armstrong
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He’s the Man With No Name and the owner of No Alibis, a mystery bookshop in Belfast. But when a detective agency next door goes bust, the agency’s clients start calling into his shop asking him to solve their cases. It’s not as if there’s any danger involved. It’s an easy way to sell books to his gullible customers and Alison, the beautiful girl in the jewellery shop across the road, will surely be impressed. Except she’s not – because she can see the bigger picture.
-
-
Mystery, humor & literary nuances - GREAT
- By Toby on 09-06-13
By: Colin Bateman
-
The Marlow Murder Club
- Marlow Murder Club, Book 1
- By: Robert Thorogood
- Narrated by: Nicolette McKenzie
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Judith Potts is 77 years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper. One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local vicar.
-
-
An awful lot like Thursday Murder Club!
- By Margaret on 06-11-22
By: Robert Thorogood
-
Alison Larkin Presents: The Secret Adversary, Murder on the Links, and The Mysterious Affair at Styles
- By: Agatha Christie
- Narrated by: Alison Larkin, James Warwick
- Length: 24 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three critically acclaimed recordings are joined together in this dazzling Agatha Christie Triple Bill, read by award-winning narrators Alison Larkin and James Warwick, star of the Partners in Crime TV series on Masterpiece Theater.
-
-
Pitch perfect narration of Agatha Christie!
- By Mary Katherine Worth on 10-18-19
By: Agatha Christie
-
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Lisette Lecat
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mma "Precious" Ramotswe sets up a detective agency in Botswana on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, making her the only female detective in the country. At first, cases are hard to come by. But eventually, troubled people come to Precious with a variety of concerns. Potentially philandering husbands, seemingly schizophrenic doctors, and a missing boy who may have been killed by witch doctors all compel Precious to roam about in her tiny van, searching for clues.
-
-
Transcends its Genre
- By Gene on 12-07-03
-
The Return of the Dancing Master
- By: Henning Mankell
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stefan Lindman, a young police officer recently diagnosed with mouth cancer, decides to investigate the murder of his former colleague, but is soon enmeshed in a mystifying case with no witnesses and no apparent motives. Terrified of the disease that could take his life, Lindman becomes more and more reckless as he unearths the chilling links between Molin's death and an underground neo-Nazi network that runs further and deeper than he could ever have imagined.
-
-
Good history, great writing
- By Ann L Omae on 03-12-09
By: Henning Mankell
-
The Keeper of Lost Causes
- Department Q, Book 1
- By: Jussi Adler-Olsen
- Narrated by: Erik Davies
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Carl Mørck used to be one of Denmark’s best homicide detectives. Then a hail of bullets destroyed the lives of two fellow cops, and Carl - who didn’t draw his weapon - blames himself. So a promotion is the last thing he expects. But Department Q is a department of one, and Carl’s got only a stack of cold cases for company. His colleagues snicker, but Carl may have the last laugh, because one file keeps nagging at him: A liberal politician vanished five years earlier and is presumed dead. But she isn’t dead...yet.
-
-
Dark, Cold, and Danish
- By Ted on 11-28-12
-
Mystery Man
- By: Colin Bateman
- Narrated by: Stephen Armstrong
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
He’s the Man With No Name and the owner of No Alibis, a mystery bookshop in Belfast. But when a detective agency next door goes bust, the agency’s clients start calling into his shop asking him to solve their cases. It’s not as if there’s any danger involved. It’s an easy way to sell books to his gullible customers and Alison, the beautiful girl in the jewellery shop across the road, will surely be impressed. Except she’s not – because she can see the bigger picture.
-
-
Mystery, humor & literary nuances - GREAT
- By Toby on 09-06-13
By: Colin Bateman
-
Homeland
- A Novel
- By: Fernando Aramburu, Alfred MacAdam - translator
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 20 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lifetime friends become bitter enemies when the father of one family is killed by militants - one of whom is a son from the other family. Told in short sections highlighting a rich multiplicity of characters from all walks of life, Homeland brilliantly unfolds in nonlinear fashion as it traces the moral dilemmas faced by the families of murder victim and perpetrator alike. Aramburu alludes only obliquely to the historical context while he focuses on the psychological complexity of his characters and builds nearly unbearable suspense.
-
-
Disappointing caricature of the Basque struggle
- By Anna E. on 04-02-19
By: Fernando Aramburu, and others
-
The Cold Summer
- By: Gianrico Carofiglio
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On May 23, 1992, a roadside explosion killed the Palermo judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three police officers. A few weeks later judge Paolo Borsellino and five police officers were killed in the center of Palermo. These anti-mafia judges became heroes but the violence spread to the region of Bari in Puglia, where we meet a new, memorable character, Maresciallo Pietro Fenoglio, an officer of the Italian Carabinieri. Fenoglio, recently abandoned by his wife, must simultaneously deal with his personal crisis and the new gang wars raging around Bari.
-
-
Outstanding!
- By Barbara on 07-14-19
-
The Secret in Their Eyes
- A Novel
- By: Eduardo Sacheri
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
ín Chaparro is a retired detective still obsessed by the brutal, decades-old rape and murder of a young married woman in her own bedroom. While attempting to write a book about the case, he revisits the details of the investigation. As he reaches into the past, Chaparro also recalls the beginning of his long, unrequited love for Irene Hornos, then just an intern, now a respected judge. Set in the Buenos Aires of the 1970s, Sacheri’s tale reveals the underpinnings of Argentina’s Dirty War and takes on the question of justice - what it really means and in whose hands it belongs.
-
-
Movie Must Be Better Than the Book
- By Kelli on 04-15-12
By: Eduardo Sacheri
-
Even the Darkest Night
- A Terra Alta Novel
- By: Javier Cercas, Anne McLean - translator
- Narrated by: Lee Osorio
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Melchor, the son of a prostitute, went to prison as a teenager, convicted of working for a Colombian drug cartel. Behind bars, he read a book that changed his life: Les Misérables. Then his mother was murdered. He decided to become a cop. This new case, in Terra Alta, a remote region of rural Catalonia—the murder of a wealthy local man and his wife—will turn Melchor’s life upside down yet again.
-
-
Amazing
- By Tyler on 04-25-24
By: Javier Cercas, and others
-
Breach of Duty
- A J.P. Beaumont Novel
- By: J. A. Jance
- Narrated by: Richard Cox
- Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonas Piedmont Beaumont has had a hard life and learned at a young age how hard life can be. Two marriages, a treacherous battle with the bottle, assorted midlife and moral dilemmas, and a few decades as a homicide detective haven't convinced him otherwise. When Beau and his new partner Sue Danielson are assigned the murder of an elderly woman torched to death in her bed, Beau finds himself distracted by Sue's difficulties at home.
-
-
Not up to par with others
- By DC on 10-12-21
By: J. A. Jance
-
The Sins of the Fathers
- By: Lawrence Block
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The hooker was young, pretty...and dead, butchered in a Greenwich Village apartment. The prime suspect, a minister's son, was also dead, the victim of a jailhouse suicide. The case is closed, as far as the NYPD is concerned. Now the murdered prostitute's father wants it opened again--that's where Matthew Scudder comes in.
-
-
Good introduction to a popular series
- By Sharron on 12-26-11
By: Lawrence Block
-
The Good Friday Murder
- A Christine Bennett Mystery, Book 1
- By: Lee Harris
- Narrated by: Dee Macaluso
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Christine Bennett has left the cloistered world of nuns for the profane world of New York State, where murder and madness are often linked. At a town meeting, Christine volunteers to investigate a 40-year-old murder case long since closed. Now she'll move heaven and earth to exonerate a pair of retarded savant twins, now senior citizens, of their mother's murder on Good Friday in 1950.
-
-
Polite procedural cozy
- By connie on 12-29-12
By: Lee Harris
-
The Good Guys
- A Novel
- By: Joe Pistone, Bill Bonanno
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Former head of the Bonnano crime family, Bill Bonnano, and former undercover FBI agent Joe Pistone (aka Donnie Brasco) have collaborated with David Fisher on a riveting thriller about organized crime.
-
-
Outstanding Inside Look
- By Reagan on 05-14-06
By: Joe Pistone, and others
-
Derailed
- By: James Siegel
- Narrated by: Gregory Harrison
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day Charles Schine rides the 8:43 into New York City to do the job he has done for over a decade...until the day he is late for his regular train, and sits down across from the woman of his dreams. He is about to discover that once you leave the straight and narrow, getting back on track is the most perilous journey of all. And for Charles, that journey - of lies, terror, and deception - has just begun.
-
-
its just ok
- By J on 03-11-03
By: James Siegel
-
Cinderella Girl
- By: Carin Gerhardsen
- Narrated by: Candida Gubbins
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three-year-old Hanna wakes up to find she has been abandoned. Her family is gone. The house is locked. She is trapped. Meanwhile, a teenage girl has been found murdered aboard the Cinderella, a cruise ship which sails between Sweden and Finland. Detective Chief Inspector Conny Sjoberg visits the girl's home to deliver the tragic news. But as he investigates, it becomes chillingly clear that the girl's younger sister will meet a similar fate - unless the police can crack the case and trap this elusive and vicious killer.
-
-
loved it
- By katie on 06-13-14
By: Carin Gerhardsen
-
The Executioner's Song
- By: Norman Mailer
- Narrated by: Maxwell Hamilton
- Length: 42 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning and unforgettable classic about convicted killer Gary Gilmore now in audio. Arguably the greatest book from America's most heroically ambitious writer, The Executioner's Song follows the short, blighted life of Gary Gilmore who became famous after he robbed two men in 1976 and killed them in cold blood. After being tried and convicted, he immediately insisted on being executed for his crime. To do so, he fought a system that seemed intent on keeping him alive long after it had sentenced him to death.
-
-
Pulitzer-winner spoiled by numskulled narration
- By W Perry Hall on 05-21-18
By: Norman Mailer
-
Santa Fe Rules
- By: Stuart Woods
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Successful movie producer Wolf Willett is stunned when he sees his own death reported in a major newspaper. It says he was a victim in a triple homicide during a sordid tryst with his wife and a friend. But who is the unidentified corpse? Why can't Wolf remember anything about the night in question? And who wants him dead?
-
-
Too much sex stuff
- By Kathleen Fuller on 06-11-19
By: Stuart Woods
Critic reviews
What listeners say about The Wings of the Sphinx
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Mary Lynn
- 12-24-09
Amazing translation!
Both the translator and the narrator of this Italian detective story should win awards. A delightful listen with abundant humour and no slight insight into human nature.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nancy Hechinger
- 12-06-23
Narrator
The narrator makes everyone sound like an Italian from Brooklyn. Kind of a comic variation Ruined the story for me
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Lawrence
- 07-28-11
This one review does it all for me.
Camilleri is wonderful, so understated, such humor, such a fun introduction to Sicily. Buy this, buy all of them.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jerry
- 07-09-21
Just Gets Better
This continues to be a great listening experience. You almost feel you are part of Montalbano and experience his joys and heartaches, his ups and downs. As much a love story as a mystery. Terrific!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MolllyT
- 10-31-20
The Sphinx moth tattoo
Just goes to show that policework is little changed regardless of country. And SOME policemen are too creative by half! This is a good thing!
Inspector Montalbano works for a jurisdiction in Sicily and knows how to sidestep both his superior and nearby jurisdictions. He also knows how to script and act (with the able assist of his fellows) to get to the bottom of things. And those fellows! Each is useful in his own way, including the one who is comic relief by way of indecipherable handwriting and total mangling of names.
The initial crime is murder, but there are many more woven into this tale. Like Colombo, all is solved in the end, except, perhaps, in his personal life. The laughs are low key, but still make for laugh-out-loud moments. The publisher's summary will give an overview without spoilers. I plan to begin with #1 and devour this whole series!
Many thanks to Stephen Sartarelli for making this book and series available to English speakers!
I like the the way Grover Gardner interprets the characters. Italian speakers may not approve of a Brooklyn accent for one of the police, but it provides North Americans with added fun.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful