Nonna Maria, “one of the most charming amateur sleuths ever created” (Tess Gerritsen), sets out to clear her goddaughter’s name and uncover the checkered past of an unidentifiable victim in this transporting mystery from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lorenzo Carcaterra.

Nonna Maria has a lot on her plate—and it’s not just fresh pasta. Two crimes have rocked the sun-drenched island of Ischia, and once again the island’s denizens have called upon the espresso-brewing, sage-counsel-giving sleuth.

A wealthy woman alleges that a valuable necklace has been stolen from her hotel room. She blames one of the young women working on the cleaning crew as the most likely suspect—a young woman who turns out to be Nonna Maria’s goddaughter. Loretta takes the heat, but privately she proclaims her innocence.

Nearby, the body of a woman is found on a curved road near the borough of Barano. The woman is not known to anyone on the island. She has no purse, carries no identification. The one suspect is a young friend of Nonna Maria’s who drove by the area that very night and thinks that he might have hit something—a pothole, or an animal, or maybe the woman in question.

It turns out that this woman had a decades-old history on Ischia, but why did she return, and more important, who killed her? It’s up to Nonna Maria to string together the clues—like the links of the beautiful missing necklace—and solve these two mysteries before death comes to Ischia again.