An Enigma by the Sea

Author/Guide: Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini

Why a Booktrail?

2025: A couple vanishes from a locked villa….

ISBN: 978-1916725195
Genre: Crime, Translated Fictioin

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What you need to know before your trail

On the wintry Tuscan coast, the wealthy elite retreat to their lavish holiday homes. But the season turns sinister when a couple vanishes from a locked villa, and the body of a disreputable count washes ashore, bludgeoned to death. With echoes of Agatha Christie and the erudite suspense of Umberto Eco (or it could be White Lotus taking on the Berlusconi era) this richly atmospheric mystery unfolds among an ensemble of eccentrics: a fraudulent aristocrat and his beautiful companion; a melancholic academic and the woman he adores; two elderly single ladies consulting ominous Tarot cards. With the local police floundering, it falls to the brooding Signor Monforti to unravel the mystery, triumphing as an amateur detective.

Locations

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Travel Guide

Tuscany

This series and this book in particular takes place along the stunning Tuscan coast. The villa Pineta della Gualdara is of course fictional but it’s wonderful to spend time in – despite the locked room deaths of course!

Grosseto is the nearest place where the police come from to investigate the case – the rest of the locations are vague or fictional but that doesn’t matter as the area of Tuscany and the sea, coast and open air is wonderfully evoked. There is plenty of Italian flair and drama to enjoy.