Nonna Maria, "one of the most charming amateur sleuths ever created"
(Tess Gerritsen), sets out to clear her goddaughter's name and uncover
the checkered past of an unidentifiable victim in this transporting
mystery from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lorenzo
Carcaterra.
Nonna Maria has a lot on her plate--and it's not just fresh pasta. Two
crimes have rocked the sun-drenched island of Ischia, and once again,
the island's denizens have called upon the espresso-brewing,
sage-counsel-giving sleuth.
A wealthy woman alleges that a valuable necklace has been stolen from
her hotel room. The necklace, she claims, has been in her family for
decades. She blames one of the young women working on the cleaning crew
as the most likely suspect--a young woman who turns out to be Nonna
Maria's goddaughter. She takes the heat, but privately she proclaims her
innocence.
Nearby, the body of a woman is found on a curved road near the borough
of Barano. The woman is not known to anyone on the island. She has no
purse, no identification. The one potential suspect is a young friend of
Nonna Maria's who drove by the area that very night and thinks that he
might have hit something--a pothole, or an animal, or maybe the woman in
question.
It turns out that this woman has a history on the island, having left
Ischia decades ago. But why did she return, and more important, who
killed her? Like the links of a beautiful, missing necklace, it's up to
Nonna Maria to string together the clues and solve these two mysteries
before death comes to Ischia again.
