Italien 1988 - zehn Jahre sind vergangen, seit die Entführung und Ermordung des christdemokratischen Politikers Carlo Rota die Weltöffentlichkeit erschütterte. Die Hintergründe des Verbrechens sind ungeklärt geblieben. Doch der Kampf gegen den Terrorismus geht weiter - Lapo Bardi, stellvertretender Staatsanwalt in Florenz, führt ihn unerbittlich.

Magdalen Nabb never returned from holidays in Florence in 1975. She liked it there, and that was why she stayed. She worked as a teacher and potter. In Manchester she had studied at the college of art and then started to write. She began with a play that was performed in London, as well as eight children's books, some of which were filmed. Then, in 1981, she wrote her first detective novel, Death of an Englishman (German translation: Tod eines Engländers), which earned a "Bravissimo!" from no less than Georges Simenon. Now that her detective novels are also being published in Italy she can only hope that nobody is murdered in Florence when she has important things to do - nowadays journalists flock to her after every murder to find out the solution to the crime.