On a humid, sweltering night in Milan, a former member of the Italian Polizia di Stato is murdered. The head of the state police in Perugia-Questore Alessandro Cenni-has been asked by the dead officer's wife to investigate the murder. The Carabinieri are in charge of finding the killer and as Cenni knows too well, the easy way is often favored by the police, and an innocent man's life is threatened with life in prison. It turns out to be much more than Cenni expected. More than twenty-five years with the police and this one case involves just-about every aspect of policing: murder, attempted murder, rape, kidnapping, all involving high-up operatives in the Catholic Church and in government circles, including a General and a Cardinal serving in the Vatican.
Cenni and his twin brother Renato, the Bishop of Urbino, work together to save the life of Cenni's long-time partner who has disappeared and to put an end to the corruption of a Cardinal who is working together with an American billionaire to establish schools that teach the tenets of fascism. An occasional foray into Italian football, some light romance, delicious food, and the continual dominance of Cenni's cat Rachel brightened the mood and assure the reader that life in Italy has much more to offer than murder and mayhem
