Don't you ever let go? she seemed to be asking. Montalbano, who understood what the woman's eyes were saying to him, smiled and threw up his hands in a gesture of resignation, as if to say: It's my job.Montalbano's gruesome discovery of a naked young woman suffocated in her bed immediately sets him on a search for her killer. Among the suspects are her ageing husband, a famous doctor, a shy admirer, now disappeared, an antiques-dealing lover from Bologna, and the victim's friend, Anna, whose charms the inspector cannot help but appreciate. However, when he is thrown off the case by the new commissioner, Montalbano resolves to conduct his own under-the-radar enquiries. Little does he expect his enquiries to lead him to a reclusive and mysterious violinist, the upstairs neighbour of an old friend . . . 'Among the most exquisitely crafted pieces of crime writing available today . . . simply superb' Sunday Times'The best company in crime fiction today' Guardian'One of fiction's greatest detectives . . . utterly gripping' Daily Mirror