Where to Start with Stephen Sartarelli
- Best entry point → The Shape of Water
- What fans keep coming back to → The Terra-Cotta Dog
- Highest rated by listeners → Rounding the Mark (Commissario Montalbano #7)
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Rounding the Mark
Commissario Montalbano • Book 7
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 4.11 ABR Score (7.6K ratings)★ 4.09 Goodreads (7.4K) ★ 4.57 Audible (257)5h 55m listening time • Released 2010Grover Gardner's weathered, sardonic delivery makes Montalbano's moral exhaustion feel lived-in rather than literary—a masterclass in how the right narrator can deepen a character's internal collapse.
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Excursion to Tindari
Commissario Montalbano • Book 5
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 4.10 ABR Score (9.4K ratings)★ 4.06 Goodreads (9.1K) ★ 4.55 Audible (291)6h 29m listening time • Released 2009Grover Gardner's warm, deliberate delivery transforms Camilleri's Sicilian detective into someone you'd actually want sitting across from you, unraveling three seemingly unconnected murders with philosophical patience and dark humor.
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The Other End of the Line
Commissario Montalbano • Book 24
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 4.07 ABR Score (4.1K ratings)★ 4.05 Goodreads (3.9K) ★ 4.64 Audible (193)7h 13m listening time • Released 2019 -
The Patience of the Spider
Commissario Montalbano • Book 8
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 4.06 ABR Score (7.5K ratings)★ 4.04 Goodreads (7.2K) ★ 4.53 Audible (236)5h 41m listening time • Released 2010Grover Gardner's measured, weary cadence perfectly captures an aging detective wrestling with doubt, making this the series' most introspective mystery—and its most haunting.
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The Potter's Field
Commissario Montalbano • Book 13
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 4.05 ABR Score (6.0K ratings)★ 4.1 Goodreads (5.7K) ★ 4.5 Audible (232)6h 4m listening time • Released 2011 -
August Heat
Commissario Montalbano • Book 10
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 4.04 ABR Score (7.4K ratings)★ 4.01 Goodreads (7.2K) ★ 4.55 Audible (212)5h 42m listening time • Released 2010 -
The Snack Thief
Commissario Montalbano • Book 3
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 4.04 ABR Score (11.4K ratings)★ 4.07 Goodreads (11.1K) ★ 4.41 Audible (322)6h 11m listening time • Released 2007Grover Gardner's warm, perfectly-paced narration makes Montalbano's wit and moral clarity shine in this twisted tale of corruption and desperation. Camilleri's Sicily has never sounded better.
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The Pyramid of Mud
Commissario Montalbano • Book 22
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 4.00 ABR Score (4.0K ratings)★ 3.97 Goodreads (3.8K) ★ 4.6 Audible (168)5h 54m listening time • Released 2018 -
The Dance of the Seagull
Commissario Montalbano • Book 15
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.99 ABR Score (5.3K ratings)★ 3.98 Goodreads (5.1K) ★ 4.51 Audible (193)5h 40m listening time • Released 2013Grover Gardner's measured, gravelly delivery transforms Camilleri's darkest Montalbano case into something genuinely unsettling—a procedural that builds dread instead of just puzzle-solving.
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The Smell of the Night
Commissario Montalbano • Book 6
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.99 ABR Score (8.2K ratings)★ 4.03 Goodreads (7.9K) ★ 4.39 Audible (283)4h 59m listening time • Released 2006Grover Gardner's warm, weathered drawl transforms Montalbano into a detective you'd trust with your confession—making this Sicilian noir feel less like a puzzle to solve and more like an evening spent with someone who actually understands human weakness.
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Game of Mirrors
Commissario Montalbano • Book 18
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.98 ABR Score (4.2K ratings)★ 3.97 Goodreads (4.0K) ★ 4.54 Audible (178)5h 34m listening time • Released 2015 -
The Track of Sand
Commissario Montalbano • Book 12
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.97 ABR Score (5.2K ratings)★ 3.93 Goodreads (5.0K) ★ 4.52 Audible (195)5h 26m listening time • Released 2010 -
The Age of Doubt
Commissario Montalbano • Book 14
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.95 ABR Score (5.5K ratings)★ 3.95 Goodreads (5.3K) ★ 4.46 Audible (200)5h 22m listening time • Released 2012 -
The Wings of the Sphinx
Commissario Montalbano • Book 11
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.95 ABR Score (5.8K ratings)★ 3.95 Goodreads (5.6K) ★ 4.44 Audible (204)5h 26m listening time • Released 2009Grover Gardner's weathered narration captures Montalbano at his most disillusioned—weary, aging, and caught between a brutal case and his crumbling personal life. Camilleri's Sicily has never felt more corrupt or seductive.
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A Nest of Vipers
Commissario Montalbano • Book 21
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.94 ABR Score (4.2K ratings)★ 3.89 Goodreads (4.0K) ★ 4.53 Audible (165)5h 43m listening time • Released 2017 -
The Overnight Kidnapper
Commissario Montalbano • Book 23
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.92 ABR Score (3.8K ratings)★ 3.94 Goodreads (3.6K) ★ 4.44 Audible (184)6h 15m listening time • Released 2019Grover Gardner's warm, conversational narration makes Montalbano's Sicily feel lived-in and real, transforming Camilleri's procedural into something you won't want to pause.
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The Paper Moon
Commissario Montalbano • Book 9
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.88 ABR Score (7.3K ratings)★ 4.02 Goodreads (7.0K) ★ 4.24 Audible (263)5h 41m listening time • Released 2010Grover Gardner's dry, world-weary delivery perfectly captures Montalbano's existential malaise alongside Camilleri's dark humor—making this Sicilian detective series as much about mood as mystery.
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Angelica's Smile
Commissario Montalbano • Book 17
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.88 ABR Score (4.2K ratings)★ 3.85 Goodreads (4.1K) ★ 4.44 Audible (186)5h 26m listening time • Released 2014 -
The Sicilian Method
Commissario Montalbano • Book 26
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.85 ABR Score (3.8K ratings)★ 3.87 Goodreads (3.6K) ★ 4.41 Audible (114)7h 7m listening time • Released 2020 -
The Cook of the Halcyon
Commissario Montalbano • Book 27
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.85 ABR Score (3.4K ratings)★ 3.87 Goodreads (3.3K) ★ 4.44 Audible (98)5h 50m listening time • Released 2021Grover Gardner's measured, world-weary delivery is perfectly suited to Camilleri's atmospheric mystery—he makes even a derelict ship feel like a character worth investigating.
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The Terra-Cotta Dog
Commissario Montalbano • Book 2
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.83 ABR Score (14.9K ratings)★ 3.95 Goodreads (14.5K) ★ 4.17 Audible (458)7h 27m listening time • Released 2007 -
The Shape of Water
Commissario Montalbano • Book 1
by Andrea Camilleri, Stephen Sartarelli
Narrated by Grover Gardner
★ 3.57 ABR Score (27.2K ratings)★ 3.74 Goodreads (26.5K) ★ 3.95 Audible (704)4h 4m listening time • Released 2007
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How We Rank Audiobooks
Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.
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