To Die in Tuscany: A Rick Montoya Mystery

Wagner’s enjoyable seventh Rick Montoya mystery (after 2019’s Roman Count Down) takes Rick, an American translator who lives in Rome, and his friend Betta Innocenti, an art fraud investigator with the Ministry of Culture, to Sansepolcro, where Betta is representing the ministry at a ceremony celebrating the donation by Spanish businessman Manuel Somonte of a sketch by Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca to the city museum. Shortly after Rick and Betta meet the museum’s director, they learn that Somonte’s body has been found in a botanical garden in Urbino, and the drawing has disappeared. The head of the Urbino police, an old acquaintance of Rick’s, asks him to interpret for the victim’s Spanish-speaking widow, and Rick heads for Urbino. Meanwhile, Betta sets out to locate the lost drawing. Never mind the detective work. The book’s main appeal lies in the lovingly and meticulously described meals over which the pair meet to discuss the many colorful suspects and motives and share fascinating details of Renaissance art history and pearls of gastronomic wisdom. This entry is an armchair traveler’s delight. (Apr.)