The nineteenth century is drawing to a close. Pellegrino Artusi, Italy's first celebrity chef, has travelled the length and breadth of the country compiling his masterpiece, The Science of Cooking and The Art of Eating Well. When Baron Romualdo Bonaiuti invites him to his Tuscan home to compare notes with his kitchen staff, he's quite looking forward to a break. On arrival he finds everything one might expect: a dramatic Tuscan castle, eccentric aristocrats, spinster aunts and a mysterious guest. Not to mention a murdered butler. Faced with a menagerie of suspects, the local constabularly are baffled. But when the Baron himself is the target of a second murder attempt, Pellegrino realises he may need to put his celebrated culinary skills to use to find the killer.
'Original, intelligent, smoothly executed - Malvaldi is a master chef of crime fiction' Christian Bourgois, Livres Hebdo
'It's not easy upon a first appearance for a newcomer to earn themselves a place at the table of legendary detectives, alongside Brother Cadfael or Hercule Poirot. Yet with this tour de force Marco Malvaldi succeeds wonderfully Alexis Liebaert, Marianne
Author
About Marco Malvaldi
Marco Malvaldi was born in Pisa in 1974, and is both a crime novelist and a chemist. He is best known for his BarLume series set on the Tuscan Coast, and also for The Art of Killing Well, for which he was awarded both the Isola d'Elba Award and the Castiglioncello Prize.
