Spanish views from a small town

I read in the paper about a week ago that Andrea Camilleri has died. He had a massive heart attack last month and had been in a Rome hospital since then. Between that, and the fact that he was 93, and already blind, I suppose it should have been no surprise. But it is a sad occasion. He was the writer of the Inspector Salvo Montalbano series of novels, set in Vigàta (Porto Empedocle), Sicily. He's also written many other books, and was a script writer for Italian television, but he gained renown after beginning his Montalbano series when he was already seventy, back in the 1990's. His first books were so widely read in Italy, that they were translated to the English from then on, and his fame became worldwide.  I think I picked up one of his first books in the tiny English corner of a bookstore in Santiago. After reading it (I don't remember which one it was), I was hooked, and went online and started buying all the ones published until the moment. We also have one in S...