"Kent combines rich atmospherics and fully realized characters with a deceptively simple puzzle in her outstanding mysteries featuring Italian PI Sandro Cellini."― Publishers Weekly  (Starred Review) Every August, Florence shimmers in the summer heat. But this year the heatwave 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 amidst the shrubbery of a normally busy roundabout, a corpse lies unnoticed, bloating in the humid air. Sandro Cellini 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. Meanwhile, bank teller Roxana Delfino is also stuck in the city for the season, with nothing to do but worry for her aging mother and puzzle over the disappearance of one 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 up. And when the weather finally breaks, it brings with it a shocking revelation . . . August is the dead season in Florence, when the streets are empty of all but the most determined tourists and all but the unluckiest Florentines, those unable to escape on vacation. This mystery focuses on two of the people forced to stay in Florence and their unlikely connection. One is series hero Sandro Cellini, a former captain in the Polizia dello Stato and now a private investigator. The other is Roxana Delfino, a bank teller in an all but empty bank. Their connection is to a man who failed to show up, both to meet his very pregnant girlfriend and to make his weekly deposit at the bank. The man is discovered, dead, next to a busy highway just outside the city. The alternating points of view between private eye and bank teller and the glimpses we get into their domestic struggles prove intriguing. The action can be a bit sluggish, but it’s August, after all, and we’ll willingly take a little lethargy for the chance to visit Cellini and his Florence. --Connie Fletcher “I loved this book and hated putting it down. It manages to be both a taut thriller and a beautifully observed story of a young woman’s coming-of-age set in a Florence in full flood. Michael Dibdin meets Muriel Spark.” - Allison Pearson, author of I Don't Know How She Does It “Cellini is a fascinating character, morose yet strong, suited for far more than the surveillance of a teen girl, his current job, but he brings his all to it. Kent delivers an ingenious country-house mystery here, complete with Agatha Christie byplay among the clashing characters and spiked by the acerbic, witty presence of Cellini.” - Booklist Christobel Kent 's previous books include The Dead Season , A Darkness Descending , A Party in San Niccolo , Late Season , and A Florentine Revenge . She lives near Cambridge with her family.