Cold Tuscan Stone

By: David Wagner

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Paperback | 7 August 2018

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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?

Industry Reviews

"David P. Wagner gives us a compelling new character in a setting so romantic and redolent of history it pulls us in immediately and holds us until the surprising ending...This is a wonderful start to a series, which should have immediate legs, and surely will thrill everyone who has lived in Italy, been to Italy, or would like to visit. As a boy I lived in both Firenze and Napoli, and reading Wagner takes me back deeply and instantly."--Joseph Heywood, Author of The Woods Cop Mystery Series, The Snowfly and The Berkut
"If you are interested in Italian art and artifacts, Italian history and culture, Italian food and wine, or even just good storytelling, then COLD TUSCAN STONE - the first in what will hopefully become a series of Rick Montoya Italian mysteries - will be right up your cobblestone alleyway....this exciting, intriguing, well-written mystery extends an offer no reader should refuse. Capiche?"--Amanda Matetsky, Author of The Paige Turner Mysteries
"Like the Etruscan urns he seeks, Rick's debut is well-proportioned and nicely crafted."--Kirkus Reviews
"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 "Booklist "
"The intriguing art milieu, mouthwatering cuisine, and the team of the ironic Conti and the bemused but agile Montoya are bound to attract fans."--Publishers Weekly
"Wagner hits all the right notes in this debut. His likable protagonist engages, plus the Italian angle is always appealing. Perfect for readers who enjoy a complex puzzle, a bit of humor, and a fairly gentle procedural. Don't miss this one." (starred review)--Library Journal

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