A deep evocation of the Sicilian temperament, with all its complex darkness and ambiguity, is embodied in Inspector Salvo Montalbano of the fictive town of Vigata, in Sicily. Camilleri writes in Sicilian dialect, and his translator has expertly captured the rhythms and nuances of that tongue in English. Good thing: the Mafia is indeed a presence here, and Montalbano unravels a very odd supermarket heist with the goods left abandoned in plain view, but that isn't the heart of the story. The groceries are only a front for guns, and in the ancient cave where they are discovered, the inspector finds the bodies of two very young lovers, dead since World War II, and carefully arranged with coins, a water jug, and the faithful dog of the title. Montalbano applies his considerable intellectual and literary gifts to this second mystery, mightily irritating his housekeeper, his girlfriend, and his colleagues while interviewing a cast of characters odd even by Sicilian standards. There are dreams and portents, semiotics and deceptions, and the violent ghosts of the war and the Mob, some not nearly dead yet.