From Lucretia Grindle, author of VILLA TRISTE, comes a novel of lives lost and found, as intricate and mysterious as the Italian streets where the story's secrets begin.When American student Kristin Carson enrolls in a study abroad program in Florence, she's sure it will be the best year of her life, a chance to explore art, poetry, and romance in the arms of her new Italian boyfriend. But days before her parents arrive in Florence to celebrate her eighteenth birthday, Kristin disappears.Senior Detective Alessandro Pallioti and his young protégé Enzo Saenz are called to investigate. At first they believe she's simply run off for a romantic weekend and forgotten to tell her parents. But when Kristin's step-mother, Anna, also goes missing, Pallioti and Saenz suspect something much more sinister has happened. As they deepen their investigation they discover that Anna Carson is not who she appears to be, and Kristin's new boyfriend isn't just another local Lothario, but one of...

It is the Autumn of 1943. Italy signs the armistice that will take it out of the war, and slides into chaos. In Florence, two sisters, Isabella and Caterina Cammaccio, find themselves surrounded by terror and death. As the Allied advance stalls in the south, Italy is trapped under the heel of a brutal Nazi occupation. Determined to take on not only the Nazis, but also the newly resurgent Fascists, bands of Partisans rise up. Almost all of them are young. Many of them are women. They have little to rely on except ingenuity, determination, and courage. Thrust headlong into the unknown, Isabella and Caterina will test their wits and deepest beliefs as never before. As the winter grinds on, they will be forced to make the most important decisions of their lives. Their choices will reverberate for decades. In the present day, Alessandro Pallioti, one of Florenceís most senior policemen, would not normally oversee a murder investigation. He agrees only because the victim - an old man...

On a sweltering day in Florence, art student and newlywed Mary Warren wandered into a shady tunnel of trees. Within minutes, she was brutally attacked and her husband murdered. And within months the killer was identified, caught, and dead. It's now two years later, and Mary has returned to Florence at the invitation of her lover—a relationship that predates what she insists on calling the "accident." Crumbling and beautiful, Florence is eternally compelling. But more and more, what Mary sees is not the glories of the city, but its dark underside—specifically, one dead young woman after another. She also can't help seeing a terrifying pattern: Either this is a copycat killer, or her husband's murderer is still on the loose. Named by the BBC as one of the best thrillers of 2006, this incredibly atmospheric novel is a great selection for fans of Ian McEwan and Daphne du Maurier.