Author(s): Andrea Camilleri

World fiction

The third novel in Camilleri's savagely witty and hauntingly atmospheric Sicilian mystery series featuring Inspector Montalbano.Never has Inspector Montalbano's character - a unique blend of humour, cynicism, compassion, earthiness, and love of good food - been more compelling than in 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 the link between the two incidents. His investigation leads to the beautiful Karima, an impoverished house cleaner and sometime prostitute, 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.