Detective Frank Coffin and his partner, Officer Lola Winters, investigate the murder of Kenji Sole, a beautiful heiress to a large fortune who was found dead on her bedroom floor, by investigating a great number of her many lovers and their wives.

Police Detective Harry Hole begins to investigate a murder caught on grainy film of a robber executing a cashier and escaping with two million Norwegian kroner, but when his ex-girlfriend is found dead after inviting Hole to dinner, he believes he is being framed for the murders.

Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad in Beszel, a decaying city on the southeastern fringes of Europe, is assigned to investigate the murder of a young woman found by a group of teens, and his inquiry leads him into complicated negotiations with Ul Qoma, a city that shares the same physical area with Beszel, separated across time and space by the dreaded Breach.

When two garbage collectors find the body of a local politician in the town dump frequented by whores and drug dealers, the coroner decides he died of natural causes, despite evidence to the contrary, Sicilian police inspector Salvo Montalbano decides to investigate the case on his own.

Inspector Montalbano exposes a viper's nest of government corruption and international intrigue while investigating the stabbing of an elderly man in an elevator and a crewman on an Italian fishing trawler is machine gunned by a Tunisian patrol boat off Sicily's coast. His investigation leads to the beautiful Karima, an impoverished housecleaner and occasional prostitute, whose young son steals other schoolchildren's midmorning snacks.