Cold Tuscan Stone (Rick Montoya Italian Mysteries) - Hardcover

Wagner, David P.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1464201900 ISBN 13: 9781464201905

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Pr, 2013

Synopsis

Rick Montoya has moved from New Mexico to Rome, embracing the life of a translator. He's settling in to la dolce vita when a school friend who is now senior in the Italian Art Squad recruits Rick for an unofficial undercover role. Armed with a list of galleries, suspects, and an expense account, Rick would arrive in Tuscany posing as a buyer for a Santa Fe gallery and flush out burial urn traffickers.

But before sunset on Rick's first day in Volterra, a gallery employee dies in a brutal fall from a high cliff.

The local Commissario and his team consider Rick an amateur, and worse, a foreigner. And now they suspect him in the dead man's murder. While the Volterra squad pursues its leads, Rick continues to interview his list: a museum director, a top gallery owner, a low-profile import/export businessman and his enterprising color-coordinated assistant, and a sensuous heiress with a private art specialty and clientele.

When Rick's girlfriend Erica arrives from Rome to visit him, she rekindles a friendship with an alluring, maybe dangerous, acquaintance. Has Rick's role made him the target of both cops and criminals?

About this title

About the Author

David Wagner, a retired Foreign Service Officer, spent nine years in Milan and Rome during his career, and now writes tourist materials about Italy. He earned his BA in English from Michigan State University, served in the Peace Corps in Chile, and taught high school English before entering the diplomatic service. He lives in New Mexico with his wife and their four cats.

From the Inside Flap

Rick Montoya has just moved from New Mexico to Rome, embracing the life of a translator. He s beginning to settle in to la dolce vita when a school friend who is now senior in the Italian Art Squad recruits Rick for an unofficial undercover role. Armed with a list of galleries, suspects, and an expense account, Rick would arrive in Tuscany posing as a buyer for a Santa Fe gallery and flush out priceless burial urn traffickers. But before sunset on Rick s first day, a gallery employee dies in a brutal fall from a high cliff. Has the trade in fraudulent artifacts upgraded to murder? Are the traffickers already on to Rick? The local Commissario and his team consider Rick an amateur, and worse, a foreigner. Plus Rick is a suspect in the dead man s murder. While the Volterra squad pursues its leads, Rick continues to interview his list: a museum director, a top gallery owner, a low-profile import/export businessman and his enterprising color-coordinated assistant, and a sensuous heiress with a private art specialty and clientele. When Rick s girlfriend Erica arrives from Rome to visit him, she rekindles a friendship with an alluring, maybe dangerous, acquaintance. Has Rick s role made him the target of both cops and criminals?

Reviews

An Etruscan urn dating from the fourth century BCE is unearthed in Italy. It’s apparently one of many: the market is suddenly being flooded by similar items. Suspecting some or all of them to be fakes, authorities ask Rick Montoya, an American translator living in Rome, to pose as a prospective buyer and find out who’s distributing the (allegedly) ancient relics. Murder and mayhem soon follow. The first in a new series, this should appeal to fans of Jonathan Gash’s Lovejoy novels and Iain Pears’ Italy-set art-theft series starring Jonathan Argyll and Flavio diStefano. --David Pitt

Edition details

• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Pr
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1464201900
• ISBN 13: 9781464201905
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 212