The Pyramid of Mud: Andrea Camilleri (Inspector Montalbano mysteries)

The 22nd novel in the internationally and New York Times bestselling Inspector Montalbano mystery series

On a gloomy morning in Vigata, a call from Fazio rouses Inspector Montalbano from a nightmare. A man called Giugiu Nicotra has been found dead in the skeletal workings of a construction site--a place now entombed by a sea of mud from recent days of rain and floods. Shot in the back, it appears he had fled into a water supply system tunnel. The investigation gets off to a slow start, but all the evidence points to the world of construction and public contracts, a world just as slimy and impenetrable as mud.
As he wades through a world in which construction firms and public officials thrive, Montalbano is obsessed by one thought: that by going to die in the tunnel, Nicotra had been trying to communicate something.
"The novels of Andrea Camilleri breathe out the sense of place, the sense of humor, and the sense of despair that fills the air of Sicily." --Donna Leon