The Dead Season

By: Christobel Kent

Narrated by: Ralph Cosham

Every August, Florence shimmers in the summer heat, but this year the heat wave is fiercer than usual and the city’s inhabitants have fled to the cool of the hills and beaches of the surrounding countryside. So it is no surprise that amid the shrubbery of a normally busy roundabout, a corpse lies unnoticed, bloating in the humid air.

Sandro Cellini, meanwhile, will not be joining the crowds of holidaymakers this year. The former policeman turned private detective has a case: a man who seems to have vanished into thin air, leaving his pregnant young wife alone in the city. Bank teller Roxana Delfino is also stuck in the city for the season with nothing to do but worry about her aging mother and puzzle over the disappearance of one of her regular clients.

As all Florence sweats it out, Cellini attempts as best he can to grapple with his case and the complications it throws at him. And when the weather finally breaks, it brings with it a shocking revelation.

©2012 Christobel Kent (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Florence is still in good hands, entrusted to a private investigator named Sandro Cellini, who keeps a wary eye on the ancient city in a string of mysteries by Christobel Kent…. The Dead Season isn’t the first book in this series, but it's a terrific introduction to the intractable problems of a modern-day city plagued by illegal immigrants, an exhausted economy, and a broken system of government." ( The New York Times Book Review)

"British author Kent's excellent third novel featuring the Italian PI…. Kent brings her characters to rich and convincing life amid story lines full of subtlety and surprise. Florence, too, springs vividly from the page, evoked with sharp observation and an admirable absence of cliché. Kent's reputation as a writer of smart, atmospheric mysteries with literary as well as genre appeal should continue to grow." ( Publishers Weekly)

Not impressed

Far too many characters that cluttered the story development. And the characters - too depressing to be heroic. I was looking for a new series to follow but this is not the one. The sad, pathetic protagonist is just too lame to enjoy.