Cold Tuscan Stone (Rick Montoya Italian Mysteries)
Wagner's appealing debut introduces Rick Montoya, who's moved from Santa Fe, N.Mex., to Rome, where he's just launched a translation business. When Beppo Rinaldi, an old friend working for the Ministry of Culture, asks Rick to pose as a representative of a New Mexico gallery to flush out purveyors of items stolen from a tomb in Volterra, Rick, with his fluent Italian and a well-placed uncle in Italian law enforcement, agrees. When Rick's promising first contact falls to his death from a wall in Tuscany, a veritable parade of alluring women and shady characters besiege him for clandestine meetings. Neither he nor local commissario Carlo Conti knows whether these people are legitimate dealers or something less savory like art forgers, thieves of priceless Etruscan antiquities, and even murderers. The intriguing art milieu, mouthwatering cuisine, and the team of the ironic Conti and the bemused but agile Montoya are bound to attract fans. (Sept.)