Cold Tuscan Stone

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 arrives in Tuscany posing as a buyer for a gallery, ready to spend his days sipping wine and examining Roman artifacts to 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 suspect Rick in the dead man's murder. While the Volterra squad pursues its leads, Rick investigates his own list of suspects: 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.

But as the murder mystery and the art trafficking heat up, Rick's role makes him the target of both cops and criminals.

Praise for Cold Tuscan Stone:

"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." —Joseph Heywood, author of The Woods Cop Mysteries

"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