Tell me the truth.''At your command, Inspector.''Why did you choose me?''Because you, as you are showing me even now, are someone who understands things.'After a cloak-and-dagger exchange with an ageing mafioso, Inspector Montalbano is left haunted by the man's dying words, which lead him to a mountainside just west of Vigàta, where he unearths two young lovers, dead fifty years and still embracing, watched over by a life-size terracotta dog. Heedless of personal danger, Montalbano's drive to solve this old crime forces him on a journey through Sicily's World War II history and to the dark heart of one family . . . 'A magnificent series of novels' Sunday Times'The best company in crime fiction today' Guardian'One of fiction's greatest detectives . . . utterly gripping' Daily Mirror