The latest installment of the popular mystery series finds the moody Inspector Montalbano with no time to wax philosophical before the gruesome murder of a man shot at pointblank range in the face with his pants down commands his attention.

The latest installment of the popular mystery series finds the moody Inspector Montalbano with no time to wax philosophical before the gruesome murder of a man shot at pointblank range in the face with his pants down commands his attention.

"You either love Andrea Camilleri or you haven't read him yet. Each novel in this wholly addictive, entirely magical series, set in Sicily and starring a detective unlike any other in crime fiction, blasts the brain like a shot of pure oxygen. Aglow with local color, packed with flint-dry wit, as fresh and clean as Mediterranean seafood -- altogether transporting. Long live Camilleri, and long live Montalbano." A.J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of * The Woman in the Window*

With their dark sophistication and dry humor, Andrea Camilleri's classic crime novels continue to win more and more fans in America. The latest installment of the popular mystery series finds the moody Inspector Montalbano further beset by the existential questions that have been plaguing him of late. But he doesn't have much time to wax philosophical before the gruesome murder of a man-shot at point-blank range in the face with his pants down-commands his attention. Add two evasive, beautiful women as prime suspects, some dirty cocaine, mysterious computer codes, and a series of threatening letters, and things soon get very complicated at the police headquarters in Vig ta.