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This 2008 novel comes after 2007’s The Patience of the Spider, making it the ninth police procedural mystery set in contemporary Sicily and starring Inspector Salvo Montalbano and his crew of dedicated, touchy, or thick-headed subordinates. The attractive but trying to hide it Michela Pardo begs Montalbano to find her brother. They find him, shot dead in his apartment. Montalbano’s investigation uncovers drugs and death, adultery and perversion, and passion and transgressive love. The story is not violent, but psychologically twisted and all too plausible. There is not the usual amount of Montalbano’s existential musings or cheerful gluttony, which is okay with me. Catarella really shines in all his goofy glory and Mimi's new baby is putting everybody through changes. Well worth reading, and bear in mind that is coming from a guy that never ever reads mysteries by writers who are still alive.