In the piazza, a man lies dead. No one will say if they witnessed his killing. This presents a challenge to the investigating officer, a man who earnestly believes in the values of a democratic and modern society. Indeed, his enquiries are soon blocked off by a wall of silence and vested interests; he must work against the community to save it and expose the truth.The narrative moves on two levels: that of the investigator, who reveals a chain of savage crimes; and that of the bystanders and watchers, of those complicit with secret power, whose gossipy, furtive conversations have only one end...

The expression 'Sicilian uncle' has the same sense in Italian as 'Dutch uncle' does in English, but with sinister overtones of betrayal and inconstancy. The four novellas in Sicilian Uncles, originally published in 1958, are political thrillers of a kind - the first fruits of Sciascia's maturity. In these stories, illusions about ideology and history are lost in mirth, suffering and abandoned innocence. Each novella has its historical moment: the Allied invasion of Sicily, the Spanish Civil War, the death of Stalin, the 'events' of 1848. These occasions and their consequences are registered...

Secret deals, powerful men and murder - One Way or Another is a chillingly prophetic work. The Knight and Death features a nameless (and apparently terminally ill) detective investigating the murder of a lawyer believed to have been killed by a mysterious revolutionary group. The detective thinks otherwise and sets out to prove that powerful business interests were involved, with the revolutionary group invented to cover up the real reasons behind the murder.

Here are some of Sciascia's greatest stories - brief and haunting, the realist tradition at its best. In one tale a couple of men talk, cynically yet earnestly, about the etymology of the word 'mafia' - who they are, and why their interest is so piqued by the word, become apparent with frightening clarity. In another story a group of peasants are taken on board ship and promised that they will be put ashore illegally at Trenton, New Jersey; after a long time at sea, their landfall is far from what they expected. And Mussolini himself takes an interest in the case of Aleister Crowley, whose...

On 16 March 1978, Aldo Moro, former Italian Prime Minister, was ambushed in Rome. Within three minutes the gang killed all five members of his escort and bundled Moro into one of three getaway cars. An hour later the Red Brigades announced that Moro was in their hands; on 18 March they said he would be tried in a 'people's court of justice'. Seven weeks later Moro's body was discovered in the boot of a Renault parked in the crowded centre of Rome. In this book, Leonardo Sciasica, a master of detective fiction, untangles the real-life events of these crucial weeks and provides a unique insight...

Román Candido (1977) se svým titulem prezentuje jako remake Voltairova románu z roku 1759 Candide aneb o optimismu. Leonardo Sciascia tu reprízuje slavnou Voltairovu postavu: prosťáčka Candida, divocha plného idealistické důvěry v náš svět jako nejlepší z možných světů - důvěry, jež se v konfrontaci se skutečností postupně rozkládá.
Candido, Sicilan jako Sciascia, a tedy dítě velmi specifické kulturní zóny se specifickým morálním kodexem a specifickými vzorci chování, prochází v této travestii třemi desetiletími italského poválečného...