A man is shot dead as he runs to catch the bus in the piazza of a small Sicilian town. Captain Bellodi, the detective on the case, is new to his job and determined to prove himself. Bellodi suspects the Mafia, and his suspicions grow when he finds himself up against an apparently unbreachable wall of silence. A surprise turn puts him on the track of a series of nasty crimes. But all the while Bellodi's investigation is being carefully monitored by a host of observers, near and far. They share a single concern: to keep the truth from coming out.

This short, beautifully paced novel is a...

On March 16, 1978 Aldo Moro, a former Prime Minister of Italy, was ambushed in Rome. Within three minutes the gang killed his escort and bundled Moro into one of three getaway cars. An hour later the terrorist group the Red Brigades announced that Moro was in their hands; on March 18 they said he would be tried in a "people's court of justice." Seven weeks later Moro's body was discovered in the trunk of a car parked in the crowded center of Rome.

The Moro Affair presents a chilling picture of how a secretive government and a ruthless terrorist faction help to keep each other in...

Am helllichten Tag wird auf der Piazza ein Bauunternehmer mit zwei Schussen getotet, als er gerade in den schon anfahrenden Bus springen will. Fahrer, Fahrgaste und Schaffner, niemand hat etwas gesehen.

In seinem beruhmtesten Roman, mit dem er 1961 debutierte, beschreibt Sciascia erstmals die Strukturen der Mafia - als diese von der Offentlichkeit noch geleugnet wird - und charakterisiert meisterlich ihre Gestalten. In der von Thomas Vormbaum herausgegebenen Reihe Recht in der Kunst - Kunst im Recht wird Sciascias Klassiker zudem von renommierten Betrachtern analysiert: Gisela...