The Hunting Season

Benjamin’s outstanding sequel to 2019’s A Quiet Death in Italy delivers authentic Italian ambiance alongside a cleverly plotted mystery. When Ryan Lee, who has made a name for himself as a supertaster (“a sort of food detective, specializing in truffles”), goes missing, his American parents ask Daniel Leicester, the best (and only) English detective in Bologna, to investigate. The one clue to Ryan’s whereabouts is a photo posted on his social media of a shop window full of cheese, salami, and truffles. Daniel’s search for the young man takes him to local restaurants, to the annual truffle market, into the woods with a celebrated truffle hound, and onto the set of an Italian TV crime show. The plot twists and turns in unexpected directions after the owner of a chain of top-class restaurants is found dead. Benjamin smoothly slips fascinating snippets of history, as well as contemporary Italian culture and food lore, into the narrative without slowing the pace. This is an essential guide for armchair travelers to Italy. Agent: Bill Goodall, Bill Goodall Literary (U.K.). (Dec.)