The Snack Thief

Description

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.

Andrea Camilleri was one of Italy's most famous contemporary writers. The Inspector Montalbano series, which has sold over 65 million copies worldwide, has been translated into thirty-two languages and was adapted for Italian television, screened on BBC4. The Potter's Field, the thirteenth book in the series, was awarded the Crime Writers' Association's International Dagger for the best crime novel translated into English. In addition to his phenomenally successful Inspector Montalbano series, he was also the author of the historical comic mysteries Hunting Season and The Brewer of Preston. He died in Rome in July 2019.

Montalbano's colleagues, chance encounters, Sicilian mores, even the contents of his fridge are described with the wit and gusto that make this narrator the best company in crime fiction today * Guardian * Among the most exquisitely crafted pieces of crime writing available today . . . Simply superb * Sunday Times * One of fiction's greatest detectives and Camilleri is one of Europe's greatest crime writers * Daily Mail * The novels of Camilleri breathe out the sense of place, the sense of humour and the sense of despair that fills the air of Sicily. Remarkable -- Donna Leon