The Overnight Kidnapper

The Overnight Kidnapper (2015/2019) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli

The 23rd Inspector Montalbano book.

The joy of these stories isn’t the mysteries, although they are never bad, but the time spent with Montalbano and all those around him.

Like Catarella.

“Fazio in?”

“Nah, Chief, ’e’s atta scene o’ the kidnappin’ insomuch as the guy’s o’ the Flyin’ Squat wannit ’im onna scene an’ axed ’im to come cuz ’e knew more stuff ’n ’em, ’em meanin’ the Flyin’ Squat. But Isspecter Augello’s ’ere onna premisses.”

And Mimi.

“In your recent past as a whoremonger . . .”

“I never went to prostitutes,” Augello objected.

“In your past life as a womanizer, then…

And Pasquano.

(I)n the doorway he nearly ran straight into Pasquano, who was just coming in.

The doctor bowed and stepped aside. “Please, please, don’t let me prevent you from leaving. You have no idea how lovely the sight of your back is.”

But especially Fazio, who (despite his records fascination) remains the solid and dependable character and in many ways the moral center of the stories.

It was hard to tell what she had looked like before. The face was so swollen that it seemed as if the killer had wanted to erase her very features. The same for her breasts and chest, which had been reduced to a formless mass of flesh.

Good thing the rest of the body was still inside the bag, because that would have been a hard sight to bear.

Fazio took several steps away, turned his back to the others, and vomited.

That passage especially struck me, for Fazio has been a cop for 20-some years, but is still hurt by the things he can see on the job.

The mystery is somewhat convoluted and ridiculous, but it hardly matters, since all I really wanted was to spend time living in Montalbano’s world.

Publisher: Penguin Books
Rating: 7/10

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