Sadly. Andrea Camilleri has died so this will most likely be the last Inspector Montalbano book. Originally written as a TV show which never happened it was made into a book instead. Supposedly Montalbano has retired but he’s undercover as a ship’s cook. As usual, there’s plenty of humor sprinkled throughout.

Thank you NetGalley for and advance copy of this book.

The late Andrea Camilleri's The Cook of the Halcyon is possibly the last to feature his Inspector Montalbano, and while still welcome, is a odd entry in the series. Camille do mentions in the Afterword that the novel was adapted from an old screenplay and it shows, the character being both younger and with his companion Livia still featured. The story takes a meandering path until its final action set piece on the mysterious yacht, Halcyon. However the food descriptions are still stomach stirring, Montalbano goes from rages to deep insights to even deeper rages. If it truly is the last adventure, many series characters have left the stage with far worse

** spoiler alert ** This is one of Andrea Camilleri's latest books to be translated after his death and published in English.
It was to be written as a TV series but was scrubbed and made into a book. What happens is that Montalbano is taken off the police and put into retirement, but this is a ruse and he's put on a ship (the Halcyon) as the cook. Fazio is his assistant cook, but they are made up so that no one recognizes them. What they are to do is put the crew and guests to sleep and then hog tie them up so they can be made ready for transport to jail. The people who set this up were killed and Montalbano had to do this without the people knowing. In the end Mimi Augello came on the ship at the end and didn't recognize Montalbano or Fazio because of their disguises and shots Fazio and pistol whips Montalbano. We leave both our hero's in the hospital. Andrea put Montalbano is some situations that I didn't go into, but we're left with wonder as to what's really happening. As always each book is written with an appreciation to put humor and excitement into the book.