On a sun-blasted archaeological dig in Sicily, a night guard is found half-buried in a trench—too new to be history, too deliberate to be chance. As the Belgian Detective and his steadfast companion step into a camp of rivals, patrons, scholars, and quiet grudges, sabotage escalates into a carefully timed fire—and a second guard vanishes with the only key that matters. In the smoke and heat, a portable cache is disturbed, a hidden passage is revealed, and the case turns from “incidents” to sequence: theft, coercion, and one fatal moment when entitlement meets a firm refusal. Death Among the Ruins is a classic Golden Age–style mystery of ambition, reputation, and the dangerous belief that money can own anything—including the past.