-Carofiglio writes crisp, ironical novels that are as much love stories and philosophical treatises as they are legal thrillers.---The New Yorker

-Raises the standard for crime fiction. Carofiglio's deft touch has given us a story that is both literary and gritty--and one that speeds along like the best legal thrillers. His insights into human nature--good and bad--are breathtaking.- --Jeffery Deaver

The first in the Guido Guerrieri series.

A nine-year-old boy is found murdered at the bottom of a well near a popular beach resort in southern Italy. In what looks...

"Carofiglio writes crisp, ironical novels that are as much love stories and philosophical treatises as they are legal thrillers.""The New Yorker"

"Part legal thriller, part insight into a man fighting his own demons. Every character in Carofiglio's fiction has a story to tell and they are always worth hearing. As the author himself is an anti-mafia prosecutor, this powerfully affecting novel benefits from veracity as well as tight writing.""Daily Mail"

"A novel as much about human nature and the passage of time as it is about law-breaking. Crisp laconic sentences, subtle shifts in...

-The role of Guido Guerrieri is to take on impossible cases that have little chance of success. The lawyer accepts the case only because he's fallen in lust with the prisoner's wife; his efforts to prove his client's innocence bring him into dangerous conflict with Mafia interests. Everything a legal thriller should be.---The Times

Counsel for the defense Guido Guerrieri is asked to handle the appeal of Fabio Paolicelli, who has been sentenced to sixteen years for drug smuggling. The odds are stacked against the accused: not only the fact that he initially confessed to the...