Writing with spare grace, this is a tale about a force that has malevolence to spare – the Sicilian mafia, and its corrosive and corrupting ways. Couched in terms of a simple murder investigation we see how thoroughly pervasive the influence of the mafia is: from witnesses who see no evil nor hear any evil, to those who actively enable crimes and fall back on the all-too-convenient crime of passion narrative to explain away inconvenient truths. He stripped the tale so that it is almost unbearable in its economy of observation. Elliptical bleakness that is a lament to the human costs. Brilliant.