Cold Tuscan Stone

July 22, 2013
Wagner’s appealing debut introduces Rick Montoya, who’s moved from Santa Fe, N.Mex., to Rome, where he’s just launched a translation business. When Beppo Rinaldi, an old friend working for the Ministry of Culture, asks Rick to pose as a representative of a New Mexico gallery to flush out purveyors of items stolen from a tomb in Volterra, Rick, with his fluent Italian and a well-placed uncle in Italian law enforcement, agrees. When Rick’s promising first contact falls to his death from a wall in Tuscany, a veritable parade of alluring women and shady characters besiege him for clandestine meetings. Neither he nor local commissario Carlo Conti knows whether these people are legitimate dealers or something less savory like art forgers, thieves of priceless Etruscan antiquities, and even murderers. The intriguing art milieu, mouthwatering cuisine, and the team of the ironic Conti and the bemused but agile Montoya are bound to attract fans.

Starred review from August 1, 2013

Both museums and collectors prize Etruscan antiquities from western Tuscany, and collectors are sometimes willing to buy them on the black market. Art thefts--and forgeries--abound, and, in Wagner's engrossing debut, the Italian police are determined to get to the bottom of an uptick in sales of stolen objects. Rick Montoya, an Italian American translator with dual citizenship who has recently moved back to Italy from Santa Fe, is recruited to be the bait in a sting operation. Posing as an art buyer from New Mexico, Rick is tasked with approaching various members of the art community to see if anyone will respond to his discreet inquiries about purchasing illegal urns. It's all perfectly safe, his police buddy assures him--but then a gallery employee is killed soon after Rick speaks to him. With the unsolved murder hanging over Rick, the proceedings take a more dangerous tone. Rick will have to talk himself out of a tight situation or two to avoid becoming the next victim. VERDICT Wagner hits all the right notes in this debut. His likable protagonist engages, plus the Italian angle is always appealing. Perfect for readers who enjoy a complex puzzle, a bit of humor, and a fairly gentle procedural. Don't miss this one.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2013
An American translator finds danger and excitement helping a Roman friend crack a ring of art thieves. Although he grew up in Rome, his mother's home, Rick Montoya has always felt more American than Italian. So Beppo Rinaldi, one of the few full-blooded Romans to attend the American Overseas School of Rome, thinks Rick would be the perfect guy to help him find out who's stealing Etruscan burial urns from the graves around Volterra and smuggling them to discreet private collectors around the world. Rick came to Rome about six months ago from New Mexico, his father's home, to work as a translator. Beppo, who works for the art squad of the Italian Ministry of Culture, wants Rick to pose as a buyer for a New Mexico art gallery looking for handcrafted items to supplement its stock of Navajo artifacts. Rick is happy to spend some time in the ancient Tuscan hill town. He quickly makes contact with the three suspects on Beppo's list: gallery owner Antonio Landi, importer-exporter Rino Polpetto and private art dealer Donatella Minotti, a college friend of Rick's girlfriend, Erica. A quick tour of the local museum led by curator Arnolfo Zerbino gives Rick enough background in Etruscan art to make his cover story credible. But his investigation quickly hits a snag when local police discover that Rick was the last person to see Landi's employee Orlando Canopo before the unfortunate workman plunged to his death. Commissario Carlo Conti of the Volterra Police has little patience for the art squad and even less for Rick, who may have signed up for a more difficult lesson in Italian police culture than he bargained for. Like the Etruscan urns he seeks, Rick's debut is well-proportioned and nicely crafted.

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July 1, 2013
An Etruscan urn dating from the fourth century BCE is unearthed in Italy. It's apparently one of many: the market is suddenly being flooded by similar items. Suspecting some or all of them to be fakes, authorities ask Rick Montoya, an American translator living in Rome, to pose as a prospective buyer and find out who's distributing the (allegedly) ancient relics. Murder and mayhem soon follow. The first in a new series, this should appeal to fans of Jonathan Gash's Lovejoy novels and Iain Pears' Italy-set art-theft series starring Jonathan Argyll and Flavio diStefano.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)