★★★★☆ (4/5)

This meta-fictional twist is jarring at first, but it becomes the novel’s secret weapon. It’s Camilleri’s wry, loving farewell. He knows we know this is the end, and he uses the artificiality of the detective genre to explore the very real fatigue of a man who has seen too much crime.

Riccardino is not the best Montalbano novel ( The Shape of Water or The Terracotta Dog hold that crown). But it is the most honest one. Camilleri refuses to give us a tidy, heroic send-off. Instead, he gives us a tired, brilliant, stubborn man doing his job one last time, fully aware that justice is a messy, often futile pursuit.