Cold Tuscan Stone

Author(s): David P Wagner

Location(s): Volterra, Rome

Genre(s): Culture, Fiction, Mystery

Era(s): Contemporary

(Rick Montoya Italian Mysteries Book 1)

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 arrives in Tuscany posing as a buyer for a gallery, ready to spend his days sipping wine and examining Roman artifacts to 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 suspect Rick in the dead man’s murder. While the Volterra squad pursues its leads, Rick investigates his own list of suspects: 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.

But as the murder mystery and the art trafficking heat up, Rick’s role makes him the target of both cops and criminals.

Review this Book