This is the second part in a strong series featuring the 'Alligator', a former convict turned detective, who, like Carlotto, has a thirst for truth and justice. Alligator's new client, Mariano Giraldi, says his wife has been kidnapped from a hotel in Turin and he wants her found, but Alligator and his two associates, Rossini and Max the Memory, are reluctant to take the case. Twenty days have elapsed since the kidnapping and Giraldi hasn't even reported it to the police. He and his wife are part of Italy's highly clandestine S&M scene. Giraldi seems more worried about losing his job and reputation than about seeing his wife again. Rossini, the old-style gangster who watches Alligator's back, doesn't want to get involved: he has his own reputation to consider. Only Max is determined to find the woman and bring her to safety. Based on a long and painstaking investigation into real events, Massimo Carlotto's new novel, the second to be published in English, has been a bestseller in Italy. The novel centres on the hunt for the shadowy 'Master of Knots', but it also reveals how the Alligator and his fellow ex-cons' lives are changing. Max has recovered his old interest in politics while Alligator has some difficult choices to make: continue his life as an unlicensed detective or run the risk of losing his lover?