Return to Umbria

The Rick Montoya Italian Mysteries, Book 4

By: David P. Wagner

Narrated by: David Colacci

Orvieto - its very name brings to mind priceless art, colorful ceramics, and straw-colored wine, as well as the most famous cathedral façade in Italy, a structure of gothic spires, arches, statues, and mosaics. But as Rick Montoya discovers, this jewel of Umbria can have an ugly side as well.

When Rick Montoya moved to his mother's Italy from his father's Santa Fe, New Mexico, to work as a freelance translator using his dual heritage, he didn't expect to be helping the Italian police. His maternal uncle, a high-level commissioner in Rome, however, sees no reason not to use the resources at hand.

Rick's fourth investigation should not have involved crime. It begins when Rick is asked by his uncle to go to Orvieto to talk some sense into his cousin Fabrizio, whose fling with a married woman is embarrassing the family. Rick agrees to give it a try and plans a short but romantic weekend in Orvieto with Betta Innocenti, the woman he met in Bassano. What could go wrong?

Less than a day after their arrival, his language skills draw him into the brutal murder of an American visitor. He finds that he knows the policeman in charge, but Inspector LoGuercio has changed since the time they met in Volterra. The murdered woman had studied art in Italy decades earlier - why has she returned now? And why was she dumped at night on a dusty road? Through her traveling companions, her devastated daughter, and best friend, as well as a growing list of those who knew her from her student days, they realize she had come to Orvieto to face the past. And then a second murder occurs in a public park, with Montoya so close that he wonders if he could have been the intended target. Is all this connected to Fabrizio and his affair, or to the American's death? More violence erupts, some of it definitely directed at Rick himself.

Strong suspects, tantalizing secrets, concealed motives, and risky behaviors tie to a fascinating landscape and layers of Orvieto's past.

©2016 David P. Wagner (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Interesting mysteries and mouthwatering foods

foodie, amateur-sleuth, Italian-customs, Italy, local-law-enforcement, local-politics, murder-investigation, family, family-dynamics, friendship, friends, relationship-issues, relationships, relatives, translators, interagency, interpreter, mystery*****

I'm kind of hopscotching with this series. I read book 8 last summer thanks to PPP and NetGalley and now hopped into this one on audio. Not a problem, really, because the mystery/locations/foodie stuff was more important than relationship issues. Professional multilingual translator/interpreter Rick Montoya (who is both Italian and from New Mexico) prefers to wear cowboy boots, and his girlfriend Dottoressa Betta Innocenti (an "art cop" from the Ministry of Culture) are the ongoing characters in a mystery series that made me drool with the descriptions of the foods eaten.
Rick has frequently worked with police investigators, and of the police inspectors is not new to him. His familial task regarding a much younger cousin gets tangled up in the murder investigation he finds himself involved in and things get a bit messy. The characters are all very interesting, the plot does not detract from the travelogue (it enhances it!), and the whole is absolutely delightful. Now I'm off to read more in this series!
David Colacci is a familiar voice actor from other mysteries set in various parts of Italy and I like listening to him.

Not worth it

Utterly formulaic and schlok from start to end. Typical American Italian character with nothing special about him