The Snack Thief is a worthy successor to the remarkable police procedural, The Terra-Cotta Dog. Although few books could hope to match The Terra-Cotta Dog for plotting, The Snack Thief provides a more than adequate set of mysteries to keep the reader intrigued and delighted. The best feature of The Snack Thief though is much greater character development for the protagonist, Inspector Montalbano, and his girl friend Livia.If you have not read other books in this series, I strongly urge you to read The Shape of Water and The Terra-Cotta Dog first. They will provide background on the characters that will add much to your enjoyment of The Snack Thief.
As the book begins, we see another side of the cheerful, capable Inspector Montalbano. He's having trouble sleeping when the police station's resident idiot, the telephone operator Catarella, calls with a nonsensical message about a death. Montalbano hangs up and unplugs the phone, ignoring the message.
When Montalbano finally makes it into the station, he finds that almost everyone has left to deal with the death of a Tunisian on an Italian fishing vessel that has come into Vigata. The Tunisian was killed by a warning shot from a Tunisian patrol vessel. Montalbano is glad to have avoided this political hot potato when another death is called in. Someone has found a man dead in an elevator.
Montalbano rejoices in being able to use this new death to avoid the first case and its inevitable complications. But can he escape handling that other case?
The police procedural aspects of this case are particularly rewarding. Inspector Montalbano works through all of the obvious details such as what floor was the elevator on before . . . and just keeps turning up new mysteries. The dead man has been going to the office of his business three days a week, even though he does no business there. Could it have anything to do with his attractive "cleaning" lady? As Inspector Montalbano learns more about the victim and his business, more mysteries keep appearing. Someone is stealing food from children on their way to school. Montalbano soon has every available officer out searching for the snack thief. Why? The solutions to the mysteries ultimate rely on remembering coincidences. It's a wonderful application of Occam's Razor.
The best part for me of this story came from the development of Montalbano's relationship with his girl friend, Livia. He cannot live with her . . . or without her. What will he do?
The book has the usual humorous side trips into Inspector Montalbano's love of food. Be sure to read the end notes to understand all about the dishes and the Italian history references.
I especially enjoyed the way that the story was resolved, as Inspector Montalbano blackmails the "hidden hand" behind the crimes to provide for an innocent.
The book reminded me of how important it is that we seek ways to help those who are powerless to help themselves.
