Chief Inspector Pel and Brigade Criminelle are mobilised when a fatal stabbing, an anticipated delivery of lethal drugs, and the discovery of a corpse in an ancient tower all coincide with a frantic search for two murderous hitchhikers.

Political conflicts are not simply manufactured from thin air, Russell Muirhead argues. They originate in authentic disagreements over what constitutes the common welfare. The remedy is not for parties to just get along but to bring a skeptical sensibility to their own convictions and learn to disagree as partisans and govern through compromise.