The Overnight Kidnapper: 23 (An Inspector Montalbano Mystery) - Tapa blanda

"The Sicilian dialect . . . as rendered in Sartarelli's adept translation, provides comic relief. Camilleri fans are in for a treat." --Publishers Weekly

"[The Overnight Kidnapper is] another wry, amiable procedural from the prolific Camilleri, whose unflappably put-upon hero soldiers on no matter how absurd the crime or aggravating the situation." --Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Andrea Camilleri and the Montalbano Series:

"You either love Andrea Camilleri or you haven't read him yet. Each novel in this wholly addictive, entirely magical series, set in Sicily and starring a detective unlike any other in crime fiction, blasts the brain like a shot of pure oxygen. Aglow with local color, packed with flint-dry wit, as fresh and clean as Mediterranean seafood -- altogether transporting. Long live Camilleri, and long live Montalbano." --A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

"The idiosyncratic Montalbano is totally endearing." --The New York Times

"Camilleri is as crafty and charming a writer as his protagonist is an investigator." --The Washington Post Book World

"Hailing from the land of Umberto Eco and La Cosa Nostra, Montalbano can discuss a pointy-headed book like Western Attitudes Toward Death as unflinchingly as he can pore over crime-scene snuff photos. He throws together an extemporaneous lunch of shrimp with lemon and oil as gracefully as he dodges advances from attractive women." --Los Angeles Times

"Like Mike Hammer or Sam Spade, Montalbano is the kind of guy who can't stay out of trouble. . . . Still, deftly and lovingly translated by Stephen Sartarelli, Camilleri makes it abundantly clear that under the gruff, sardonic exterior our inspector has a heart of gold, and that any outburst, fumbles, or threats are made only in the name of pursuing truth." --The Nation

"Camilleri can do a character's whole backstory in half a paragraph." --The New Yorker

"Subtle, sardonic, and molto simpatico Montalbano is the Latin re-creation of Philip Marlowe, working in a place that manages to be both more and less civilized than Chandler's Los Angeles." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"The novels of Andrea Camilleri breathe out the sense of place, the sense of humor, and the sense of despair that fills the air of Sicily." --Donna Leon

“[Camilleri’s mysteries] offer quirky characters, crisp dialogue, bright storytelling—and Salvo Montalbano... a delightful creation, an honest man on Sicily's mean streets.” —USA Today

The day gets off to a bad start for Montalbano: while trying to break up a fight on Marinella beach, he hits the wrong man and is stopped by the Carabinieri. When he finally gets to the office, the inspector learns about a strange abduction: a woman was abducted, drugged, and then released unharmed only hours later. Within a few days, the same thing happens again. Both women are thirty years old and work in a bank. 

Montalbano also has to deal with an arson case. A shop has burned down, and its owner, Marcello Di Carlo, seems to have vanished into thin air. At first this seems like a trivial case, but a third abduction—yet again of a girl who works in a bank—and the discovery of a body bring up new questions.