The lawyer and journalist Matteo Teresi discovers the existence of a secret cult whose members are powerful politicians, priests, and celebrities. In 1901, at a time of immense changes in Sicilian society, the discovery causes a national scandal. But far from being hailed as a hero, Teresi is accused of disrupting the status quo. From the salons, churches, and social clubs of Sicily to the country’s highest courts, Camilleri’s novel is a fast- paced, funny, passionately rendered portrait of the machinations of power, of institutionalized corruption, church cover-ups, political scare tactics, fake news, and collective paranoia.
