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Villa Triste    by Lucretia Grindle Amazon.com order for
Villa Triste
by Lucretia Grindle
Order:  USA  Can
Grand Central, 2013 (2011)
Softcover, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Barbara Lingens

When two decorated Italian partisans are murdered in two different cities in less than a month, Detective Pallioti knows that more may follow. With little to go on, he must scramble for information, while trying to mollify an American who wants to find her grandfather among the heroes.

Luckily he finds a notebook that movingly documents what it was like for a family quietly trying to live in the chaos brought on by the abdication of Mussolini, the Nazi onslaught, and the following U.S. penetration. Though the notebook cannot answer all questions, Pallioti is able to piece together a story of comradeship, betrayal, and revenge taken by a most unusual and strong partisan.

Author Lucretia Grindle has managed to bring the historical and contemporary stories together interestingly and convincingly, though it is the historical one that holds our attention and hearts. This is a pretty assured debut novel.

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