A mystery story so intelligent and intricate that it defies solution, by a virtuoso storyteller and stylist.

"The New York Times Book Review"

A series of mysterious deaths in a southern Italian seaside resort baffles the Italian police. A dozen tourists disappear or die. All are men, all are middle-aged, all are foreigners.

A former astronaut is dispatched to Italy as private investigator. He sets himself up as a decoy, and is assailed by strange events - but what do they mean? Lem charges his plot with a dimension new to the genre, as death is revealed as a product of chance. Brilliantly inventive, immensely readable.