
Never has Inspector Montalbano's character
- a unique blend of humor cynicism compassion earthiness & 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 & 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 & sometime prostitute whose young son steals other school children's mid-morning snacks But Karima disappears & the young snack thief's life
- as well as Montalbano's
- is endangered when the inspector exposes a viper's nest of government corruption & international intrigue The Snack Thief is followed by the fourth Inspector Montalbano novel The Voice of the Violin