Comissario Guido and Paola Brunetti attend a dinner party at Palazzo Falier at which Maurizio Cataldo and his wife are guests. Later that week at the Questura, Brunetti is asked for two favors. The first request is from Count Orazio Falier, Paola’s father. Maurizio Cataldo has approached him with a business opportunity, but he’s unsure if Cataldo is trustworthy. The next request comes from Maggiore Guarino, a government investigator from the mainland, looking into the illegal hauling of garbage and hazardous waste. Guarino soon turns up dead and kidnapping fears and another murder ensue, and things take a shocking, dangerous turn.

Donna Leon's novels featuring Commissario Brunetti have all been highly acclaimed, most recently Friends in High Places, which won the CWA Macallan Silver Dagger for Fiction, as well as Death in a Strange Country, Acqua Alta, A Noble Radiance, Uniform Justice, and Doctored Evidence. Ms. Leon has lived in Venice for many years.