A Party in San Niccolo

Christobel Kent

What a fascinating story! Gina arrives in Florence, to rest and visit an old friend, on the same day as a violent murder is committed. Yet this is not a Whodunit. It skilfully mixes beautiful descriptions of Florence and its genteel residents in their elegant homes, with tales of drug dealers, pimps, illegal immigrants and squalor.

Extract

She was very pretty, in a tired damaged sort of way; her eyes, beyond the bruising and dirt, were large and black, her cheekbones were pronounced and her hair was long and thick .... At first Gina speculated that perhaps she was the battered wife of a violent local farmer, but that didn't seem to fit, she was too pretty, too delicate, and obviously not Italian. Then it clicked: she was one of them.

Parallels