A Mysterious Review of Cold Tuscan Stone by David P. Wagner. A Rick Montoya Mystery.
Review summary: Though there are relatively few suspects in this debut murder mystery set in Tuscany, there are a lot of characters and it helps when they take a break to dine or discuss art, giving readers a chance to get acquainted with them. The storyline itself is nicely crafted, if also a little thinly plotted, but given how well structured the environment in which the investigation plays out it hardly matters. A fine start to this series. (Click here for text of full review.)
Our rating:
Cold Tuscan Stone
David P. Wagner
A Rick Montoya Mystery
Poisoned Pen Press (September 2013)
Publisher synopsis: 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?
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