Brunetti examines a series of suspicious deaths in the church-run seniors rest home where his mother resides, who refuses to move in with him so long. Suspicion falls on the secretive fundamentalist movement Opera Pia, including chaplain Pio Cavaletti. A nurse offering to testify drowns. Finding his Swiss police chief Dr. Urs Brauchli far from mundane, Patta dumps him on Brunetti, as the foreigner shows interest in his case.
—KGF Vissers