Six short stories brought together for the first time in a volume, written at different times and not included in the anthologies Camilleri published in his lifetime. The short framings, the rapidity of rhythm, the foreshortened juxtaposition of plots, the skewed writing without stumbling, the encryption of humorous talent, are all to the benefit of the pointed rendering of the texts and the suggestions that readers are led to gather. The short stories reconcile a different way of reading, in a closer complicity with the mischief of the narrator. By other means they ensure the same enjoyment offered by the broad stories of Montalbano’s novels. Everything is entrusted to the analytical intelligence of the inspector who, indulgent when necessary, knows how to read of the various lives with which he comes in contact in the daily clutter.