I finally finished SICILIAN MURDER this past week! It will be released on Tuesday July 9th and it's available for pre-order here. I feel like I've spent the past eight months in Sicily as I've done so much research along the way for this book. I used Google Earth to travel down the highways and see what was on the roadside, or to see what businesses the average Sicilian small town has on its Main street. I feel like I intimately know the five different branches of law enforcement in Italy and what kinds of vehicles they drive. I even found myself at one point looking at houses to buy when two Sicilian towns announced they were selling houses for one Euro. Of course you have to spend fifteen-thousand Euros in rehabbing any property you buy within three years of purchase. Some of the houses were in such a condition that describing them as money pits would be a compliment, but I digress.
SICILIAN MURDER is the tale of an American CEO found dead in one of the volcanic craters of Mount Etna on the island of Sicily. Jill Quint, MD and the gang are hired by the CEO's daughter to investigate her father's death. Italy has a sad record in the frequency and accuracy of autopsies, so Jill has her work cut out for when dealing with the Carabinieri and State Police.
It appears that the CEO found The Plant that was going to be a new highly profitable product for his company. The problem was he kept that information to himself – didn't share it with any of his employees. On an island filled with amazing plants, how was Jill going to find The Plant that might be the motive for the man's murder?
Once I put the finishing touches on SICILIAN MURDER, I'll turn to writing my next story. I'm going to try something new and write two books at once. Book 10 in the Jill Quint series will be set in Toronto and involves the classical music world, something I know little about. Also, I'd planned on ending the Damian Green series with THE GIRL FROM DIANA PARK, as I'd wrapped up the story lines in that series, but I'm going to try to write a fourth book in that series as I enjoy the characters so much and I got requests from a few readers not to end the series.
SICILIAN MURDER is available for pre-order now. On Monday and Tuesday June 17 and 18, the $4.99 book will be reduced to 99 cents. If you've already pre-ordered, Amazon will refund the difference, if you miss these special pre-order days for readers of my blog, than you'll be charged the regular price of $4.99.