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Jack Higgins' novel "The Hour Before Midnight" (1969) depicts the dark side of Sicily through the story of Stacey Wyatt, an American of Sicilian descent who was raised by his grandfather to be the heir to the mafia hierarchy. Wyatt tries to break with his family's tradition of violence and code of honor, but his escape only leads him to an Egyptian prison after a failed gold smuggling operation.

When strangers free him and return him to Sicily, he has no choice but to enter the world he tried to leave. He is given a seemingly simple task - to rescue the daughter of a wealthy businessman from the hands of a notorious bandit who has kidnapped her. The reward is great, and success could mean final freedom.

However, as Wyatt delves deeper into the Sicilian underworld, he realizes that nothing is as it seems. The kidnapping is part of a more complex power game between mafia clans and mercenary armies. The only one he can rely on is himself, as he tries to survive in a world where betrayal and death are commonplace. Higgins skillfully portrays Sicily as a place where the modern world collides with ancient codes of revenge, and survival depends on the ability to read between the lines.