Turn to Stone
An Ellie Stone Mystery
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- £8.49
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- £8.49
Publisher Description
This 1960s-era locked-room mystery takes Ellie Stone to Florence, Italy--a seemingly idyllic setting, which in this case has sinister undertones.
Florence, Italy, August 1963. In Italy to accept a posthumous award for her late father's academic work, "girl reporter" Ellie Stone is invited to spend a weekend outside Florence with some of the scholars attending the symposium. A suspected rubella outbreak leaves the ten friends quarantined in the bucolic setting with little to do but tell stories to entertain themselves. Deciding to make the best of their confinement, the men and women spin tales, gorge themselves on fine Tuscan food and wine, and enjoy the delicious fruit of transient love. But the summer bacchanalia takes a menacing turn when the man who organized the symposium is fished out of the Arno. "Morto." As long-buried secrets rise to the surface, Ellie must figure out if one or more of her newfound friends is capable of murder.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ziskin's enjoyable seventh Ellie Stone mystery (after 2018's A Stone's Throw) takes smart, self-possessed photojournalist Ellie to Florence, Italy, in 1963. She has been invited there by Professor Alberto Bondinelli to attend a symposium and accept an award on behalf of her late father, a medieval poetry scholar. This is to be followed by a relaxing stay at a country estate in Tuscany. Not a full day passes before Bondinelli's lifeless body is fished from the Arno River. Even though the students and colleagues who helped organize the event are shocked by the death, they agree to complete their academic duties and to spend the weekend at the country house. When a rubella outbreak forces the participants, each one a distinctive character, to extend their stay, they pass the time telling stories, some of which touch tangentially on the murder. Plenty of possible motives keep the reader guessing to the unexpected ending. Erudite and often amusing digressions add to the story's charm.
