Florence, summer 1963. Inspector Bordelli is one of the few detectives left in the deserted city. He spends his days on routine work and his nights tormented by the heat and mosquitoes. With the help of his young protégé, the victim's eccentric brother, and a semi-retired petty thief, the inspector begins a murder investigation. Each suspect has a solid alibi, but there is something that doesn't quite add up ...

Tells the story of how fifteenth-century goldsmith and clock maker Filippo Brunelleschi devised the plan to build the dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence, an engineering feat that had puzzled architects for over a century.

In the picturesque Tuscan hill town of Scandicci, the body of a girl is discovered. Scantily dressed, she is lying by the edge of the woods. Chief Superintendent Michele Ferrara, head of Florence's elite Squadra Mobile, takes the case. Because toxins were discovered in the girl's body, many assume that she died of a drug overdose. But Ferrara quickly realizes that the truth is darker than that: he believes the girl was murdered.--From back cover.

Florence, 1967. It is winter, and one year has passed since the historic and devastating flood of the Arno, though the memories of that day still linger with the stains on the city walls. The anniversary of the flood brings with it a new case for Inspector Bordelli, who is weighed down with remorse for having taken justice into his own hands, and yearning for Eleonora, the woman he's lost, when the mystery opens. A local wealthy industrialist - fiercely...

Florentine silk merchant Giovanni Pietro d'Angelo and his wife want only to marry their daughters to wealthy men of distinction. But when their son's indiscretion implicates him in a tragic accident, their eldest daughter must pay the price. To buy the silence of Sebastiano Rovere, they must give beautiful Bianca to him in marriage. But Bianca flees this cruel union, and then her husband's shocking murder frees Bianca to love at last ...

April 1964, but spring hasn't quite sprung. The bad weather seems suited to nothing but bad news. And bad news is coming to the police station. First, Bordelli's friend Casimiro, who insists he's discovered the body of a man in a field above Fiesole. Bordelli races to the scene, but doesn't find any sign of a corpse. Only a couple of days later, a little girl is found at Villa Ventaglio. She has been strangled, and there is a horrible bite mark on...

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family's Florentine palazzo.

Giovanni Pietro d'Angelos selected his oldest daughter's husband, and the marriage proved to be a disaster. He offers to give his next oldest daughter, Francesca, more latitude in choosing a husband than her sister had. But the arrogant beauty has no desire to marry, and she drives every potential suitor away. The Duke of Terreno Boscoso seeks a wife for his heir, Rafaello, and invites Francesca, along with several other possible brides, to come meet...

Florence, 1965. A man is found dead in his home, a pair of scissors stuck in his throat. Only one thing is known about him - he was a loan shark who ruined and blackmailed the vulnerable men and women who would come to him for help. Inspector Bordelli prepares to launch a murder investigation but the case will be a tough one for him, arousing mixed emotions: the desire for justice competing with a deep hostility for the victim.

Examines the life of the Florentine intellectual, his relationships with contemporaries ranging from Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo to Cesare Borgia and Pope Alexander VI, his philosophies about power, and the legacy of The Prince.