Red Riviera: A Daria Vinci Investigation (Daria Vinci Investigations)

Its jaws open wide, a firefighting seaplane skims the glittering Gulf of Portofino on Italy’s jagged Ligurian coast, scooping up a lone swimmer named Joe Gary. The super-rich, retired Italian-American has mob connections and a dirty political past. Has he been snatched by accident or murdered? Red Riviera, Commissioner Daria Vinci’s first investigation, is a wild ride from the tangled trails of the Cinque Terre to glamorous Portofino to roistering Genoa. It’s a Riviera made red by riotous bougainvillea and spilled blood. Half-American, Daria Vinci is an outsider, the unlikely rising star of Genoa’s secretive Special Operations Directorate DIGOS. In Red Riviera, she must face down a Fascist police chief, the CIA’s local mastermind, a former World War Two Spitfire fighter pilot, and a plucky hundred-year-old marquise whose memory is as long as it is vengeful, in order to solve her case.

David Downie is the award-winning author of three previous crime-mystery novels and over a dozen acclaimed nonfiction books translated into a variety of foreign languages, including French, Italian, Chinese, and Korean. His articles and essays have appeared in anthologies, magazines, and newspapers worldwide. Downie was born in San Francisco and graduated from UC Berkeley and Brown University. He is married to photographer Alison Harris. Since 1986 he has divided his time between Italy, France, and California. www.davidddownie.com