Tightly plotted, engaging and atmospheric, this classic from the inventor of the Italian "Whydunit" will keep you guessing until the last page. When the clerk arrived to unlock the bookstore on Via Corridoni, the last thing he expected to find inside was a dead Senator. . . Now Inspector De Vincenzi has been assigned the case and the only clue is a missing copy of a rare book, La Zaffetta, taken from the room where the Senator lies dead. As the bodies begin to pile up, supernatural forces seem to be at work. But it was no spirit that put a lead slug in the back of Senator Magni's head. Available for the first time in English, Inspector De Vincenzi is immensely popular in Italy, the protagonist of several best-selling novels as well as two Italian television series. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Augusto De Angelis, born in Rome in 1888, was an accomplished author and respected journalist, publishing over 25 books in his lifetime which included works on history, the theater and current events. But he is most acclaimed for the creation of Inspector De Vincenzi, the first "true" Italian fictional detective and still one of the most popular, a character "as humane as Maigret, as romantic as Marlowe, as intellectual as Philo Vance, yet stubbornly Italian." His writings - especially his mystery novels - were extremely unpopular with Mussolini's regime. De Angelis was beaten to death by fascists in 1944.