A BBC headline caught my attention: “Italy bribery probe nets Sicily coronavirus response chief” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52753502

   The head of Sicily’s coronavirus response team has been arrested in connection with at least €1.8m paid in bribes.

   One of the problems for anyone writing historical novels is making the actions not only relevant but credible. That’s true even if the history is relatively recent.

     In Families of Spies I wrote about the heritage of political corruption in Sicily in the 1970s. The tentacles of corruption reached deep into the political elite. Dark forces as disparate as the mafia and the CIA wallowed in a sea of clandestine cash.

    It seems not a lot has changed.