The Dance of the Seagull by Andrea Camilleri

The Dance of the Seagull is the fifteenth darkly humorous adventure starring Inspector Montalbano from bestselling author Andrea Camilleri.
Inspector Montalbano is awake at dawn, sitting on his porch, when his attention is caught by a seagull which falls from the sky, performing a strange dance, before lying down to die. Montalbano is perplexed by what he has witnessed and the scene hangs over him like an omen.
About to depart for a holiday with his girlfriend Livia, Montalbano makes a quick trip to the police station to tie up loose ends. But when his dear colleague Fazio is discovered missing - and it transpires that the policeman has been involved in his own secret investigations - Montalbano instead launches a desperate search for his lost friend, as time begins to run out . . .
Navigating a shadowy maze of smuggling, blackmail and the darkest murder, and moving from the docks of Vigàta to its deep, dry wells where the mafia hide their terrible crimes, Inspector Montalbano must have his wits about him to unravel this tangled mystery.
The Dance of the Seagull is followed by the sixteenth Inspector Montalbano novel, The Treasure Hunt.

PRAISE FOR THE SERIES
"A magnificent series of novels" Sunday Times
"There's a deliciously playful quality to the mysteries Andrea Camilleri writes about a lusty Sicilian police detective named Salvo Montalbano." New York Times Book Review
"Camilleri as crafty and charming a writer as his protagonist is an investigator." The Washington Post
"The books are full of sharp, precise characterizations and with subplots that make Montalbano endearingly human ... Like the antipasti that Montalbano contentedly consumes, the stories are light and easily consumed, leaving one eager for the next course." New York Journal of Books
"This series is distinguished by Camilleri's remarkable feel for tragicomedy, expertly mixing light and dark in the course of producing novels that are both comforting and disturbing." Booklist