Thus begins a steady trickle that reaches a crescendo in Addaura. In the summer of 1989 Falcone is vacationing in this small seaside town near Palermo. He is investigating money laundering by the Cosa Nostra. On 20 June an agent of his escort unit finds a bag full of explosives hidden among the rocks where the magistrate usually goes to swim: it is immediately clear that this is an assassination attempt. Falcone isn’t surprised, he’s been expecting it. He knows he is isolated and he knows the more secluded he is, the more his life is in danger. But even the failed assassination attempt becomes an occasion for defamation: in the parlours of Palermo they say that he himself had the bomb planted, in order to attract attention to himself and advance his career. They say: the Mafia doesn’t make mistakes, the Mafia doesn’t warn you, it kills you and that’s that. Which is to say: you yourself staged the assassination attempt.

Falcone knew Italy and was well aware of the formula by which if the mafia doesn’t kill you, if the attempt fails, you risk losing credibility. He knew that in Italy only death can legitimize you. Here’s what he is asked in a television broadcast hosted by Corrado Augias: ‘You say in your book that in Sicily one dies because one is alone. Since you are happily still with us, who protects you?’ Falcone responds with: ‘Must one be killed in order to be credible in this country? This blessed country where, if they plant a bomb near your house and the bomb luckily doesn’t explode, it’s your fault that you didn’t make it explode.’