Lucretia Grindle

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 prot g 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 the most infamous--and dangerous--men in Italy. To find Kristin, Pallioti and Saenz must first find Anna and uncover the secrets she's kept buried for a lifetime. To do so, they must wade through the past, revisiting times and places most Italians would rather forget, and walk in the footsteps of the dead.

In World War II Florence, Italy, two sisters trapped by the Nazi Occupation have to make life-altering decisions that will reverberate for decades... and collide with a present day murder investigation. Florence, Italy, 1943 Two sisters, Isabella and Caterina Cammaccio, find themselves surrounded by terror and death; and with Italy trapped under the heel of a brutal Nazi occupation, a Partisan resistance movement rises up. Soon 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 difficult choices of their lives. Florence, Italy, 2011 In the present day, senior policeman Alessandro Pallioti agrees to oversee a murder investigation after it emerges the victim was once a Partisan hero. When the case begins to unravel, Pallioti finds himself working to uncover a crime lost in the twilight of war, the consequences of which are as deadly today as they were over sixty years ago.

‘Her past.’ Pallioti tapped the files. ‘This,’ he said, ‘is how you'll find her.’ In Florence, a young American student goes missing. At first neither Alessandro Pallioti, one of the city’s most senior policemen, nor Enzo Saenz, his deputy, are too concerned. But soon the men are horrified to discover that the older man Kristen has been spending time with is Antonio Tomaselli, a member of the notorious Red Brigades. Then, before the police can get a handle on the case, Kristen's step-mother, Anna, also vanishes. Before long Enzo finds himself enmeshed in a web of false identities, betrayed loyalties, and revenge. At its centre is Anna, a woman he is increasingly drawn to, but knows he should not trust; and at stake is the life of an eighteen year old girl. With the horrors of the past rising behind him and the women’s futures hanging in the balance, Enzo Saenz is on unfamiliar ground and playing the most deadly game of his life . . . 'Grindle is a craftswoman of delicate, evocative psychological thrillers’ Daily Telegraph

A sweltering day in Florence, and newly-wed art student Mary Warren breaks away from her tour group in the Boboli Gardens to wander into a shady tunnel of trees. But the tranquil setting conceals a complex maze and a masked killer: within minutes Mary has been severely attacked and her husband brutally murdered. A year later and the ‘Honeymoon Killer’, Karel Indrizzio, is dead and Mary is living a restless life in Philadelphia. Her scars are a constant reminder of that dreadful day, but in an effort to help her forget, her friend – attractive journalist, Pierangelo – invites her to return to Italy. However, in this city Mary’s dark secret cannot stay buried for long. For there is a new menace stalking the women of Florence, and his technique is startlingly reminiscent of her own attacker’s. Piero is following the deadly trail and Mary soon recognizes terrifying implications and patterns in his research: either this is a copycat, or her husband’s murderer is still at large . . .

It is our secret. No one guesses that we are nightspinners. No one knows how much we talk, or about the words we weave between us. We work in silence, and when our mother eases the door open she rewards us for what she assumes is our sleep. She whispers "You are such a good girl." She says it just once, to both of us, as if we were one. Which, in fact, we are. We are two peas in a pod. Marina and me. Mirror images. We are twins.' Twenty years later Marina is dead, horrifically murdered, her body discovered only three days after the killer struck. But what haunts Susannah the most is the phone call she never returned, the last chance to make amends with her estranged twin sister. Until, that is, Susannah herself becomes victim to a stalker, someone who pursues her with an uncanny knowledge of her fears, her regrets and her secret history . . .