It tells the story of a former medical doctor who becomes involved in a criminal plot involving a mysterious suitcase left with him.
It is the second installment of Scerbanenco's Milano Quartet and follows A Private Venus.
[1] It first appeared in English in 1970, translated by Eileen Ellenbogen as Duca and the Milan Murders.
[3][4] In 2013, Publishers Weekly described the book as an "excellent crime novel" and wrote that Scerbanenco "smartly and logically weaves all the various plot threads together".
[5] It received the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for best foreign novel in 1968.