Costas Haritos is a CID chief based in Athens. He is uncomfortably married, has one daughter and relaxes by reading dictionaries. Aggressive and pessimistic, he is not very likeable; the manner in which he treats his clients is certainly not to be commended. One evening he is called to the scene of a murder: A renowned TV journalist, Janna, has been killed in a broadcasting studio just as she was about to go on air with some sensational news. The killer must have known about her investigations and wanted to stop her making them public. The first of the novels featuring Inspector Haritos exposes the corruption that has pervaded both private and public life in Greece since the fall of the military dictatorship, the advent of a democratic government and the explosion of barely controlled private entrepreneurship.