The commissioner kept looking at him with an expression that combined contempt & commiseration apparently discerning unmistakable signs of senile dementia in the inspector. I'm going to speak very frankly Montalbano. I don't have a very high opinion of you." " Nor I of you " the inspector replied bluntly. Montalbano's gruesome discovery of a naked young woman suffocated in her bed immediately sets him on a search for her killer. Among the suspects are her aging husband a famous doctor; a shy admirer now disappeared; an antiques-dealing lover from Bologna; & the victim's friend Anna whose charms Montalbano cannot help but appreciate. But it is a mysterious reclusive violinist who holds the key to this murder..."