The Reading Warehouse

Naples, 1931. Together with his indefatigable partner Brigadier Maione, Commissario Ricciardi, a man driven into solitude by his paranormal gift of seeing the final seconds in the lives of victims of violent deaths-a talent that also makes him a highly effective investigator-is conducting an investigation into the death of the beautiful and mysterious Duchess of Camparino. The duchess' connections to Neapolitan privileged social circles and the local Fascist elite make the case a powder keg waiting to blow.

Antony Shugaar's recent translations include A Pimp's Notes by Giorgio Faletti, The Nun by Simonetta Agnello Hornby, Bandit Love by Massimo Carlotto, and Sandokan by Nanni Balestrini, for which he received an NEA translation fellowship. He lives with his family in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Maurizio de Giovanni lives and works in Naples. In 2005 he won a writing competition for unpublished authors with a short story set in the 1930s about Commissario Ricciardi, which was then turned into the first novel of a series. His books have been successfully translated into French, Spanish, and German and are now available in English.

Grover Gardner is an award-winning narrator with over eight hundred titles to his credit. Named one of the Best Voices of the Century and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards, was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly, and has earned more than thirty Earphones Awards.