When Montalbano answers his phone at 5 a.m. a voice tells him he's late and hurry to the meeting place. Angry at an early morning wrong number Montalbano plays along and tells the caller he'll be there shortly. Later a man is shot dead in front of friends at the designated meeting spot. Montalbano quickly makes the connection with the call. He's frustrated that the investigation has been assigned to another inspector. The case bounces back to Montalbano when the assigned inspector makes serious errors. During the course of the investigation he uncovers an illegal drug scheme, angers his superiors, meets a fortune teller, and has philosophical discussions with the bishop all while trying to avoid a long vacation with Livia .
Riccardino is the 28th title in this long-running series. Camilleri died in 2019 but Riccardino was written in 2005 and was to only be published after his death. He wrote eighteen more Montalbanos in the intervening years and Riccardino was the perfect finale. It ties up themes that run through earlier books and, funny to the end, includes the author as a main character.
For those who have followed the irascible Italian detective over the years, who have laughed and cried with him Riccardino is the perfect ending. Goodbye, old friend. You will be missed.
Many thanks to NetGalley and publisher Penguin Books for the opportunity to read this title.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher Penguin Group Penguin Books for an advanced copy of this mystery.

Not many authors get to to write their last book in advance, especially in a long going mystery series. Andrea Camilleri in his final book in the Inspector Salvo Montalbano series Riccardino attempted to. The book is bittersweet. You want your hero to always go on, to solve the mysteries of the world, eat delicious meals and find love. Here the ending is not so much a fall off of Reichenbach Falls, but well more metafiction then mystery.

Montalbano is awoke by a wrong number yelling at him for not being where he is supposed to be, from a voice that is both boisterous and full of life. The Inspector is called to a murder scene where his caller from the morning has been shot in the company of his best friends, moments after talking to Montalbano. Along the way separate cases start to merge into bigger conspiracies, the Inspector's temper gets thinner, but the food is still good. Also the Author keeps calling at all hours of the day, asking about the investigation, telling him what he is doing wrong, and pushing him forward for a solution, a good one this time, not like in his previous tales. Again, more meta than mystery.

There is an ending, one not expected but still interesting. It is sad to see a long ending series end, one where you go to know the characters and were invested in their happiness and setbacks. I"ll miss the Inspector, especially his delicious meals. A different sort of coda for a remarkable series.

A final Montalbano mystery,? but we all get older. I'm. glad this wasn't published earlier-I will miss our Sicilian detective. I did not catch on right away to the structure of this novel and it made me a bit frustrated. The fact that we really don't get Montalbano's solution is a bit annoying, but then we are able to surmise it. A fitting and sad farewell. As always, the descriptions of the food and the settings were delicious.