Ghirlandaio's Daughter — John Spencer Hill

ARTFUL DEATH

Arriving in the medieval town of Lucca to receive an award for his latest volume of poetry, Italian police detective Carlo Arbati is drawn into a complex case that begins with the seemingly accidental death of an unknown American.

The unexpected demise, which occurs at the posh villa of an expatriate English painter, immediately affects several lives--especially that of an American lawyer who needed the dead man to pull off a swindle that would save the attorney's family, career and life.

Unfortunately, he doesn't live that long. And Arbati, with his keen eye, unravels the convoluted motives of lovers and liars, extortionists and conspirators...and crimes as passionate and twisted as their perpetrators.