INCLUDED IN THE GRANTA SHORTS LIST: a crime has been committed in a public place. A dark-suited man was shot as he ran for a bus. The investigating officer of the crime soon finds that, in this small Mafia-run town, no one saw him fall...

In the piazza, a man lies dead. No one will say if they witnessed his killing. This presents a challenge to the investigating officer, a man who earnestly believes in the values of a democratic and modern society. Indeed, his enquiries are soon blocked off by a wall of silence and vested interests; he must work against the community to save it and expose the truth.The narrative moves on two levels: that of the investigator, who reveals a chain of savage crimes; and that of the bystanders and watchers, of those complicit with secret power, whose gossipy, furtive conversations have only one end - to stop the truth coming out. This novel about the Mafia is also a mesmerizing demonstration of how that organization sustains itself. It is both a beautifully, tautly written story and a brave act of denunciation.

"The most intelligent detective story I have ever read and the ideal introduction to Sciascia's brilliant but little known oeuvre" - Daily Telegraph

"A very well-written page turner. This is an absorbing and compelling story" - Northampton Chronicle

"One of the major writers of the age" - Time Literary Supplement

"A detective story that is so much more; sharp and precise and demanding the reader to render judgement" - Absolutely Chelsea

"Irresistible... The finest writer [out of these classic sleuth reissues]" - Metro

"The accessibility and beauty of Sciascia's prose suggest he wanted it to be an antidote to the silent complicity and self-deception confronting both him and his heroes. When he wrote about crime, he was also writing about truth, solitude and belonging" - Observer

"The first novel written in Italy about the mafia... Powerful and remarkable, full of telling details and uncomfortable truths" - The Times