The corpse of a nobleman fallen into misery is found in his modest home, the first crime of a dense thick yellow that has as its background Venice on the threshold of the Baroque.
On the place the protagonist of the story, Francesco Barbarigo. As "The Lord of Night ", gives the title to the story and expressly recalls the judiciary in charge of public order, six judges and together police chiefs. It is a person really lived at the time as well as the main characters of the story who, on the contrary, is of pure invention. This particular involved a copious research work as documented in the bibliography of the book.
It is only the first of the crimes that emerge in an intense and intriguing plot. The most varied figures are involved, from those in the foreground, to those out of the way. In this way, the author opens a wide rundown on rich aristocrats and those who badly giggle, merchants, moneylenders, cheaters, prostitutes and others. In the story, everyone plays their respective roles and contextualises it in that Venetian society that had just left behind a century of splendor to slip into a slow decline. Unpleasant characters also appear, such as the "good ones", because the time of decline is also theirs, united to the thugs by a sordid and overwhelming violence.
Still with a view to delving into the book in its time, here is the addition of short digressions on curiosities, customs and habits, anecdotes, facts and little facts. They constitute a wealth of information on the history of the Serenissima, without interrupting the narration and without the actors slipping away from it.
The figure of the protagonist deserves a separate discussion. If anyone hopes for the stereotype of the positive hero, he will be disappointed. Barbarigo is a twisted man who deals with investigations with a superficiality equal only to his arrogance. He would like to pass as someone who knows what he is doing, to spread security, but inside him there are anxieties and ancient pains. He does not know how to get out of trouble, changes his mind and mood from one moment to the next, pursues extravagant hypotheses and investigates people completely unrelated to the crime. The language is brisk, raw, often mocking and desecrating, it ridicules the defects and defects of the protagonist and at the same time those of the society of the time.
On the wave of improvisation and a clear incapacity, nothing is missing, not even a casual relationship, or what he would like, with a lady as beautiful, as indecipherable. He does not understand anything even of this strange love which soon causes him new disturbances.
So that in the investigations, as well as in the bed, he ends up collecting a series of sensational defeats until a captain of the guards rushes to his aid, having all the experience and cunning that the magistrate lacks. However, the two will still have to work hard to write the word end to all the yellow that in the meantime has thickened with twists, ambushes and crimes, including those that emerge from the past. The ending will be unexpected and surprising.