MURDER & MINESTRONE

A forty-year-old cold case. A corrupt town empire. A secret buried in the soil.



Isabella "Bella" Rossi is thrilled to be back in the warm, sun-drenched hills of Tuscany. The autumn harvest is ready, and Villa Della Luna is finally at peace. But the tranquility is violently shattered when a neighboring farmer's deep plow unearths a rusted, vintage wine barrel buried exactly on Bella's property line.



Inside the barrel are human remains-and a complex, heavy brass puzzle box.



Maresciallo Matteo De Luca quickly identifies the victim as Aldo Conti, a meticulous town accountant who vanished without a trace in the autumn of 1985. But Mayor Fabrizi, the ruthless, slick politician whose family has controlled the valley for decades, immediately tries to quarantine Bella's vineyard and seize the evidence.



Bella and Matteo realize Aldo didn't just stumble into a murder. He was auditing the town's ledgers, and he died trying to hide the proof of a massive, valley-wide embezzlement scheme. To clear her family's land and save her harvest, Bella must decode the intricate culinary ciphers Aldo left behind.



From burning archives to abandoned, cavernous olive presses, Bella and Matteo must race against a desperate, powerful Mayor who is perfectly willing to destroy the town-and anyone in it-to keep his family's dark history buried.



"Murder & Minestrone" is the gripping seventh book in The Tuscan Vineyard Mysteries. Packed with small-town corruption, clever cryptography, and rustic Italian charm, this cozy mystery proves that the truth always rises to the surface.