After his adventures under sun-drenched Neapolitan skies in Cosi Fan Tutti, Aurelio Zen finds himself back in Rome, sneezing in a damp wine cellar and being given another unorthodox assignment: to release the jailed scion of an important wine-growing family who is accused of a brutal murder. 'Among British crime writers, he remains very much the man to beat. No one else can match him for style, for imagination, or for sheer beastliness, as the climax of A Long Finish - a bravura piece of depravity - triumphantly proves.' Sunday Telegraph