The Snack Thief

Never has Inspector Montalbano's character a unique blend of humor, cynicism, compassion, earthiness, and love of good food - been more compelling than in Andrea Camilleri's third Montalbano novel, The Snack Thief. When an elderly man is stabbed to death in an elevator and a crewman on an Italian fishing trawler is machine-gunned by a Tunisian patrol boat off Sicily's coast, only Inspector Montalbano suspects a link between the two incidents. His investigation leads to the beautiful Karima, an impoverished house-cleaner, whose young son steals other school children's mid-morning snacks.

But Karima disappears, and the young snack thief's life as well as Montalbano's is endangered when the inspector exposes a viper's nest of government corruption and international intrigue. The Snack Thief is followed by the fourth Inspector Montalbano novel, The Voice of the Violin.