The second volume in Jean-Claude Izzo's acclaimed Marseilles Trilogy, featuring ex-cop Fabio Montale.

The second novel in Izzo's acclaimed Marseilles trilogy is a touching tribute to the author's beloved city, in all its colour and complexity. Fabio Montale is an unwitting hero in this city of melancholy beauty. Fabio Montale has left a police force marred by corruption, xenophobia, and greed. But getting out is not going to be so easy.

When his cousin's son goes missing, Montale is dragged back onto the mean streets of a violent, crime-infested Marseilles. To discover the truth about the boy's disappearance, he infiltrates a dangerous underworld of mobsters, religious fanatics, crooked cops, and ordinary people whom desperation has driven to extremes.