'this exemplary account ... Follain tells the story with an almost thrillerish sense of pace and tension, but never loses sight of how the Falcone case dramatically affected the wider workings of both the mafia and the police.' -- The Sunday Times 'A compelling narrative... From the 'walking corpses' to 'distinguished cadavers', bomb plots and dissolving dead bodies in acid baths, Follain's work is testimony not only to the determination and bravery of the forces of law and order but also of the arrogance and contempt shown by the Mafia.' -- Press Association 'A cool, lucid, always vivid reconstruction... A gripping chronicle... A book which reads like a novel but is in fact a true story.' -- La Repubblica, Rome 'On the basis of new and exclusive interviews and the testimony of investigators, supergrasses, survivors, relatives and friends, John Follain tells - minute-by-minute - the story of events which marked (Italy) for ever... An unprecedented portrait of how the Sicilian Mafia operates, describing in detail how it plotted and carried out the assassinations.' -- ADNKronos news agency, Rome 'John Follain, who interviewed Judge Falcone seven months before his death... relates the assassinations and the incredible race against time of Judge Borsellino, who died 57 days after Falcone, to discover who killed his friend and colleague.' -- La Gazzetta del Sud, Bari 'The inside story of the assassination plots and investigations that followed Judge Falcone's killing.' -- John Humphrys, Today, BBCRadio 4 'A book which causes deep anger because you see Italy once again lose its best men, like Falcone and Borsellino, who were exposed to slander even before they were hit by mafia explosives'. -- Roberto Olla, TG1 news, Rome

John Follain was born in 1966. He studied at Oxford before joining Reuters, for which he worked as a correspondent in Rome and Paris. He has covered Italy for The Sunday Times since 1998. His previous books include DEATH IN PERUGIA, THE LAST GODFATHERS, which was translated into 10 languages, MUSSOLINI'S ISLAND and the international bestseller ZOYA'S STORY. He was voted runner-up for the 2006 Paul Foot Award for Campaigning Journalism, and nominated for the 2008 Magazine Journalism Awards for his interview with the Knox family.