It's one of the hottest days of the year. Chief Inspector Blume is enjoying a rare solitary lunch in a tranquil corner of Trastevere when an unwelcome phone call shatters his peace with news that an animal rights activist has been brutally killed on the outskirts of the city.
The scene that awaits the Chief Inspector is horrifying: multiple knife wounds, copious blood. But, unusually, the investigation is already well underway - the case itself apparently clear-cut, the prime suspect quickly identified.
The victim's widow is an elected member of the Senate, and the case is naturally given special priority. A couple of awkward questions refuse to accept the simple answers given, but Blume, well acquainted with the city's underworld, knows from bitter experience that in Rome even a murder enquiry must bow to the rules of political expediency.
But when worrying procedural shortcuts sanctioned by one of his superiors are uncovered, Blume is left no option but to take matters into his own hands. The complex and uncomfortable truth he will unravel will shock even him, and in a world where compromise rules and the rules are compromised, Blume must risk his reputation - and his life - to see justice done.
