The Sudden Disappearance of the Worker Bees

A scathing look at Italian bureaucracy adds to the charm of Quadruppani’s wryly comic Commissario Simona Tavianello mystery, his first to be published in English. On a vacation in Italy’s Piedmont region, Simona and her retired police chief husband, Marco, stop at a cottage to buy some honey and find a body. The couple plan to continue their travels after notifying the police, but the discovery that the victim was shot with Simona’s gun ensures their continuing involvement in the case. Simona soon learns that the dead man is an engineer whose company manufactures genetically modified seeds and pesticides. Suspicion immediately falls on the cottage’s owner, the head of a militant environmentalist organization. Two towering personalities—Simona herself, shrewd and relentless, and Maresciallo Calabonda, the rural police chief who’s far from the country bumpkin he appears to be—dominate the investigation, supported by colorful locals, including a shy reporter and an Albanian shepherd. Agent: Sophie Schiavo, French Publishers Agency. (Sept.)