The third novel in Camilleri's savagely witty, brilliantly evocative Sicilian mystery series featuring Inspector Montalbano.
'Tell me everything. But most of all, tell me about 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 schoolchildren'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.
'A magnificent series of novels' Sunday Times
'The best company in crime fiction today' Guardian
'One of fiction's greatest detectives . . . utterly gripping' Daily Mirror