19/01/2026
**January Giveaway** – to be in with a chance simply like our pages and this post and share this post with at least one friend.
https://www.facebook.com/EssentialItaly are pleased to team up with https://www.facebook.com/bitterlemonpress to offer a copy of An Enigma by the Sea by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini and a bottle of delicious Pugliese Olive Oil to three lucky people.
This week sees the publication of An Enigma by the Sea – a great winter read to get you in the mood for your summer in Tuscany.
A literary exploration of human nature. With rich prose, deft storytelling, and sharp wit, this novel appeals to fans of both classic mysteries and sophisticated literary fiction.
On the wintry Tuscan coast, the wealthy elite retreat to their lavish holiday homes. But the season turns sinister when a couple vanishes from a locked villa, and the body of a disreputable count washes ashore, bludgeoned to death.
With echoes of Agatha Christie and the erudite suspense of Umberto Eco, this richly atmospheric mystery unfolds among an ensemble of eccentrics: a fraudulent aristocrat and his beautiful companion; a melancholic academic and the woman he adores; two elderly single ladies consulting ominous Tarot cards. With the local police floundering, it falls to the brooding Signor Monforti to unravel the mystery, triumphing as an amateur detective.
Carlo Fruttero (1926-2012) and Franco Lucentini (1920-2002) are legendary authors in Europe, known as pioneers of the modern crime genre. An Enigma by the Sea, Runaway Horses and The Lover of No Fixed Abode are three of six works of fiction they wrote together, translated by Gregory Dowling.
Gregory Dowling grew up in Bristol and read English Literature at Christ Church, Oxford. Gregory lives in Venice. He is a celebrated translator from Italian, a novelist (The Four Horsemen and Ascension, both set in Venice) and a local university professor.
