{"title":"Franco Lucentini","description":"Authors: Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini were a well-known literary duo in Italy for several decades until Lucentini's death (by suicide) in 2002. For about forty years they co-wrote newspaper articles, literary essays, and published six groundbreaking and best-selling mystery novels. Their first novel, The Sunday Woman, was made into a film in 1975 starring Marcello Mastroianni, Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Runaway Horses and The Lover of No Fixed Abode,  first published in 1980s, are the third and fourth, respectively of their novels. Translator: Gregory Dowling grew up in Bristol, UK. He read English Literature at Christ Church, Oxford. He moved to Italy after graduating and has lived there since 1979, teaching in Naples, Siena, Verona and eventually Venice, where he has lived since 1981. He published four thrillers in the 1980s and 1990s and then devoted himself to academic work and translation. He returned to fiction in 2015, with his novel set in 18th-century Venice, Ascension. The Four Horsemen, the sequel to Ascension, came out in 2017.","products":[{"product_id":"runaway-horses-paperback","title":"Runaway Horses - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA murder mystery, a hilarious portrait of a fading marriage, and a lyrical evocation of Siena and its Palio, all rolled up into one brilliant novel.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSiena, one of Italy's most beautiful cities, visited by all discerning travellers to Tuscany, is feverishly preparing for the Palio, a horse race dating back to the Middle Ages held every summer in the centre of the town, famously described by Rick Steves as \"The World's Most Insane Horse Race\". Milanese lawyer Enzo Maggione and his wife Valeria are unwittingly caught up in the maelstrom of plots, counterplots and bribes surrounding the race. They are even witnesses to the violent death of Puddu, the Palio's most celebrated jockey, found dead the day before the race. \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eWhat begins as a listless excursion to a medieval equestrian competition turns into a hallucinatory nightmare for Maggione and his wife, awakening their dormant libido, for each other but, more dangerously, for others in their entourage. The death of the jockey is only one of the mysterious goings-on to be solved. It soon becomes clear that there are no bystanders in the Palio.\"A macabre Mediterranean mystery bubbling with romantic intrigue.The comedy of licentious manners, going hand in hand with Enzo's probe and the authors' rich description of the Palio and the equestrian world, all add up to a colorfully offbeat mystery. Fruttero and Lucentini's sophisticated drollery and Italian sensibility will particularly delight fans of the prolific Andrea Camilleri, whose final Inspector Montalbano novel was published in 2021.\"---\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eOnce again, Fruttero and Lucentini have taken a seemingly innocuous place and event and delved deep into its secrets to produce a compelling story, told with sharpness of insight and in sparkling language.\" ----\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eELN European Literature Network\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51374789558495,"sku":"9781916725034","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/luabVwlCP79781916725034.webp?v=1789186120"},{"product_id":"an-enigma-by-the-sea-paperback","title":"An Enigma by the Sea - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Doyens of the Italian detective story, Fruttero and Lucentini, offer a perfect blend of the comedy of manners and the macabre; in short, very Mediterranean mysteries.\" \u003cstrong\u003eTim Parks\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eHotel Milano\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eItalian Life\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn an exclusive resort on the Tuscan coast, the wealthy elite gather at their luxurious second homes for Christmas. Amid this frosty holiday idyll, a husband and wife vanish from their heavily guarded villa, and the body of Count Delaude, a dubious aristocrat, washes up on the shore, battered to death.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe ensemble cast brims with intrigue: The count, a sponger and a sham had arrived under cover of dark with a beautiful young woman scheming to be a top model. Two comedians seclude themselves as they try to overcome a writing block. One depressive, Signor Monforti, a retired academic, tries to woo a beautiful divorcee, while another, a woman this time, prepares to leave her husband. Two elderly spinsters and their Filipina maid are aghast at the awful predictions of their Tarot pack. With the local police floundering, it falls to Monforti to unravel the mystery, triumphing as an amateur detective.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn Powers on \u003ci\u003eNPR's Fresh Air: \" \u003c\/i\u003eBrilliant.\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eMasters of the light fantastic, Fruttero and Lucentini roll out their mystery with the slyest of touches.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A sophisticated thriller--consistently funny. These are superbly deadpan observers of humanity\u003cem\u003e.\" \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA juicily acerbic mystery that's more lurid soap opera than whodunit. ----\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"In this well-plotted thriller by Italian duo Fruttero and Lucentini, translated into English for the first time, a private seaside idyll for the wealthy and reclusive becomes the scene of a shocking crime. Featuring a quirky ensemble cast and an erudite amateur detective, this charming tale is sure to please a wide variety of readers.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e---CrimeReads\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51375095906527,"sku":"9781916725195","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/WDpKqqcTiy9781916725195.webp?v=1789193025"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/franco-lucentini.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}