I found Montalbano's twenty-fifth case, The Other End of the Line, to be one of his strongest. Yes, there's the element of humor, with the tech-leery Montalbano trying to deal with a GPS for the first time, and Catarella trying to take care of the victim's cat. Yes, there's the mouth-watering Sicilian food. Yes, there's Livia with her demands and arguments and Montalbano's intuition and dreams that always seem to lead him to the right path in his investigation. But there's more.

The Other End of the Line is firmly rooted in the crisis so many European countries have faced with thousands of refugees seeking asylum. Author Andrea Camilleri skillfully shows the logistics of dealing with frightened people almost every night and brings an even more human side to the situation with the plight of a young refugee girl.

The mystery is a tough one to solve. Montalbano has to deal with a member of his team trying to fit up a rival with the murder of the woman in the tailor's shop, and the victim herself is so secretive that it makes the investigation even harder.

This book's treatment of the refugee crisis makes it one of the strongest in this long-running series. We get to observe both Montalbano's heart and his considerable skills. I'm looking forward to his next case even though it means that I get closer to the end of one of my favorite series. ( )

This is a typically interesting and fun Inspector Montalbano mystery novel. Unfortunately, it is Camilleri's last. Inspector Montalbano is one of the great long-running characters in fiction history, both in the many books and in the long TV series shot in Sicily. ( )

The mystery is quite good but even better is the look at how Sicily was dealing with waves of migrants (or refugees) coming from northern Africa. ( )

Kudos to Camilleri for integrating one of the big problems facing Europe now -- the influx of desperate migrants crossing the Mediterranean in overcrowded unsafe boats and the ability to process and accommodate these refugees. Montalbano's small police force is stretched to help handle this new work, and trying to find local, qualified volunteers: fluent in Arab or medical skills. Meanwhile, Livia wants him to attend a marriage vow renewal of her friends and forces him to have a new bespoke suit by a charming female tailor. When she is brutally murdered with shears, her quiet life comes under scrutiny to find suspects. Funny at times, Montalbano's intuition is still keen and his supporting characters (e.g., Rinaldo the fluffy white cat), including meals from his maid Adelina's and restauranteur Enzo, are an ongoing source of delight. ( )

Quite by accident, during Refugee Week, I found myself reading a novel with a subplot about Syrian refugees. A friend of mine with reading tastes somewhat different to mine, mentioned the author Andrea Camilleri and was astonished that I had never heard of him. Although he writes crime novels, she made his books sound irresistible because of the Italian setting, and the detective's devotion to Italian cuisine. And since I do like Donna Leon's Brunetti mystery series because they're set in Venice, I found one of the Inspector Montalbano Mysteries at the library...

The crime is a murder and there are the usual relationship issues, red herrings, and tiresome senior officers and incompetents, that are the staples of crime fiction. But the subplot, in which the Vigàta police force are having to cope with hundreds of refugees arriving on the Sicilian coast, rings true. Up all night trying to keep order when there are no reinforcements to enable the ordinary work of policing to go on, is all the more difficult because Inspector Montalbano doesn't agree with the EU treatment of the refugees.

Fortunately when he explains things to his girlfriend Livia who lives in Boccadasse and doesn't have a clear sense of just how dramatic things are, she agrees to help. 'Lately,' he says...

the migrant landings on our coasts are more punctual than the bus from Montelusa. They come by the hundreds every single night. No matter the weather. Men, women, children, old people. Freezing, starving, thirsty and frightened. And in need of everything. Every single one of us at the station is busy twenty-four hours a day trying to manage these arrivals. And in town people have formed committees of volunteers who collect living necessities, cook warm meals, provide clothing, shoes and blankets. Beba directs one of these committees. Do you feel up to lending her a hand?

'Of course', said Livia. (p.8)

Of course. It really is quite simple...

Camilleri (1925-2019) may have been a prolific writer of genre fiction, but he was an author with a heart and he used fame and popularity to raise serious issues. ( )