The tone of this, the fifth in the series, is darker than the earlier novels. All the usual characters are present, and, as the head and deputy head of the flying squad are incapacitated, the new commissioner is forced to give the latest murder to Inspector Salvo Montalbano. Matters are complicated by the unexplained disappearance of an elderly couple who happen to live in the same block of flats as the murdered victim.

A couple of complaints. My 'volume' is the Kindle version and there are a number of small irritating editing errors which have not been seen in the previous books.