Best Served Cold

June 19, 2023
Wagner again puts his years as an Italian diplomat to good use in his excellent eighth whodunit (following 2020’s To Die in Tuscany) featuring translator-turned-sleuth Rick Montoya. Montoya, a New Mexico native living in Rome, is hired by the Palermo police to transcribe the interrogation of an organized crime turncoat for the FBI, who are hoping to use it to take down an American mafioso. The assignment coincides with a request from Zeke Campbell, Montoya’s former fraternity brother, who’s become a priest and is leading a religious tour in Italy. When the group’s local guide disappears, Campbell asks Montoya to fill in; before long, the guide turns up dead, and Montoya begins investigating, uncovering evidence that the man was less innocent than he appeared. Wagner juggles plotlines adeptly, and further deepens the relationship between Montoya and his love interest Betta Innocenti, an art fraud investigator. Montoya’s adventures have yet to lose their shine.

July 15, 2023
A reunion of old friends is marred by murder. Translator Rick Montoya has just finished up an assignment in Palermo when he gets a call from his old fraternity brother Zeke Campbell. Zeke, who's leading a tour of New Mexicans around Italy, hopes to reconnect with Rick in Rome. Since it will take Rick, son of a New Mexican father and a Roman mother, at least a day to get back to his adopted hometown, they agree to meet in Assisi, the tour's next stop. Rick's uncle, police commissario Piero Fontana, suggests that instead of Assisi, Rick might stay with his great-aunt Filomena in nearby Perugia to thank her for lending him her gracious apartment in Rome. Rick isn't thrilled with the prospect of combining his time reliving his bright college years in Zeke's company with a visit to an elderly widow, but he agrees. To his surprise and delight, Filomena turns out to be a lively, young-looking senior who dresses elegantly and loves fine food and wine. Unfortunately, the visit is cut short when Rick gets an urgent call from Zeke: Their tour guide has disappeared, and Zeke needs Rick to fill in. While staying at the hotel the tour has booked in Perugia, Rick tries to track down the slippery Ettore Biraldo, the tour guide, and when Biraldo meets his inevitable bad end, Rick helps the police track his killer. Meanwhile, Rick's girlfriend, art investigator Betta Innocenti, is in Pisa on the trail of a pastel original that disappeared from a side chapel of Saint Ursula church. The only connection between Rick's case and Betta's is that both are solved mainly by chance. Foodies and fans of rural Italy will like this better than mystery buffs.

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August 1, 2023

After U.S. interpreter/translator Rick Montoya finishes a top-secret job in Palermo, Italy, involving the interview of a Mafia informer, his uncle (Commissario Piero Fontana) suggests that Rick spend some time with his aunt in northern Italy. The visit is interrupted when an old college friend, Zeke Campbell, asks for help with a tour group in Assisi. Zeke, now a priest, is leading a religious tour of members from Rick's home state of New Mexico, but their tour guide failed to show up when they arrived in Assisi. Although Rick plans to interpret for the group on their tour, he's recruited by the local police as an interpreter when the tour guide is found murdered. Suspects include members of the group, as well as people who had business with the guide, who seems to have been a shady businessman. Now Montoya's time is divided between interpreting, the murder investigation and meals with the attractive police inspector. The climax unites Rick's job in Palermo with murder suspects in an attractive Assisi setting. VERDICT While there's too much car travel that slows down Montoya's latest outing (after To Die in Tuscany), the setting, meals, and atmosphere will appeal to foodies, wine lovers, and armchair tourists.--Lesa Holstine

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