An Inspector Montalbano Mystery by Andrea Camilleri
Inspector Montalbano is recovering from a gunshot wound he sustained at
the end of the previous book in the series, Rounding the Mark.
The Inspector was shot in the shoulder by a man involved in trafficking very young,
third world children and so he had no hesitation in taking out his own gun and shooting the despicable individual dead.
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The kidnap victim had set off for a friend's house on her scooter but never arrived. |
He is being looked after at his beachfront home in Marinella by
his long suffering girlfriend, Livia, and keeps suffering flashbacks to his time in
hospital.
However his convalescence is rudely interrupted when Catarella, one of his officers, calls him
from the police station and tells him there has been a kidnapping.
The girl was a student at Palermo University and had been out in the evening to a friend’s
house to study. She had left her friend to travel home on her scooter early in the evening but had never arrived.
The case just doesn’t add up in Montalbano’s opinion as the family did not have much money, so he wonders why the kidnappers would bother with this girl.
As usual his sharp mind and understanding of human nature helps him get to
the truth with plenty of wry humour and a generous helping of Sicilian cuisine
along the way.