On Days Like These

When burned-out mystery writer, Mark Salvatore asked to borrow the old family home in the hills near Genoa, Italy for some much needed R&R, he envisioned a blissful summer enjoying the warm Italian sun, hanging out with the villagers, eating good home made Italian food, and drinking the local wine.

Following a frustrating trip via Paris and Nice, Mark finally arrives in Santa Fiori in the rain to find the house has been trashed. Chickens and ducks from a nearby farm have taken possession of the living room, and there’s a man asleep under a pile of blankets in the bedroom.

Tony Wheeler is English and says he’s in Italy on business. He also tells Mark that his car has been stolen, and he’s waiting for his clothes to dry and the weather to clear before he can walk to the village to inform the police. He could be telling the truth, but what if he’s not? What if he was involved in that bank robbery Mark just heard about? The one in Milan where the thieves got away with the loot.

Mark’s creative processes immediately go into high gear. Milan is less than a hundred miles north, and Santa Fiori is just off the main Milan-Genoa highway. What if Tony Wheeler is an alias, and he’s hiding out in the hills until the heat is off?