Leah Contarini Mystery

Leah Contarini can't stay out of trouble. She doesn't mean to get embroiled in solving crimes, it just happens. But, not this time. Accompanying her folklorist husband Nick on his research sabbatical in Italy to study a Tuscan celebration, Leah is safe, contentedly working on an article for a travel magazine about the area's ancient Etruscan trails. One early morning she sets off on a simple hike to take photos for her piece. What could possibly happen? Well... murder. And, Leah becomes a witness with proof. Barely escaping the killer and suddenly entangled in the local drug culture and the intrigue of family devastations, Leah outmaneuvers Nick and police Lieutenant Cavour to pursue a series of random clues that lead not to answers, but to a second body at the bottom of a refuse hole. Convinced the isolated trail of the Tuscan Forest holds the answer to both deaths, Leah sets off alone. In a last, deadly encounter, she learns two things: evil can slip into the smallest cracks, and the love of a community can carry us through the hardest times.

On her nostalgic return to Tuscany, the now-widowed Leah Contarini discovers that the idyllic village where she had lived with her husband has become a quagmire of secrets. Leah is bewildered. Why is a woman screaming at a corpse? Who is the man being beaten with a bucket in the middle of the piazza? Why is another man running through the woods slobbering? Who is the new stranger in town that won't go away? Confused by this turmoil and unsuspecting, Leah walks straight into the grasp of a murderer.