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Commisario Alessandro Cenni investigates the murder an American woman in Assisi during Holy Week.
Soho Crime
Fiction/Mystery
May 2007
$23 Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-56947-459-4
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“The Last Enemy, Grace Brophy’s mystery in an Umbrian setting like no other, serves up more delights than the local pastacerria. The murder of Italian-American Rita Minelli during Holy Week in Assisi, with its warren of winding alleys, hidden squares and steep cobbled stairways, poses questions for Commissario Alessandro Cenni, not the least, those concerning a 17th-century manuscript, a Croatian immigrant, and a reclusive Contessa. With pressure from Rome, the Commissario’s own job is on the line. Brophy’s wry laser-like insight probes the layers of Italian aristocracy, the police system and the clergy with a sure, deft touch.”
—Cara Black, author of the Aimée Leduc Series |
“Charm aplenty.”
—Kirkus Reviews |
"This well-paced murder mystery carries the reader along even after the identity of the culprit becomes clear. Believable narrative twists combined with excellent characterization, rich dialogue and a finely depicted setting with please lovers of old style deductive detective fiction." – Publishers Weekly |
"The characters are rich and involving—the clever and commanding Cenni, a sensual and witchy Croatian florist, a priest who sacrifices his vows for a beautiful woman. Fans of Donna Leon or Hakan Nesser will be ecstatic to find a kindred spirit in Grace Brophy." – Bookpage |
"Brophy teases out each layer of clues with a deft hand that betrays few of the usual first-novel clunkers, helped greatly by strong knowledge of the locale she's chosen. Cenni is well set up to return, and traditional mystery readers should welcome his continued investigations." – Baltimore Sun |
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Rita grew up in Brooklyn, the only child of a narcissistic Italian mother and the G.I. she married at the end of World War II. After her mother’s death, she quits her teaching job and descends upon her poor but aristocratic relatives, the Count and Countess Casati, in Assisi. It takes a while before they realize, to their chagrin, that Rita has come to stay. When the family assembles to watch the penitentes procession in the town square during Easter Week, a Casati tradition, Rita does not join them as planned. Her corpse is later found in the family mausoleum.
Alessandro Cenni, a Commissario in the State Police of Umbria and a handsome bachelor whose twin brother is about to become a bishop, must penetrate the secrets of the Casati family and their circle if he is to discover who killed Rita and why. But he is blocked by their powerful right-wing connections, and by a superior who prefers to arrest a scapegoat rather than risk political suicide. Aided by a loyal staff in his quest for that rarity—justice—he still must acknowledge that no one can defeat the last enemy, death itself.
GRACE BROPHY grew up in Queens. She now divides her time between New York and Terni, a village in Umbria, where she lives with her husband, a Uruguayan artist. This is the first in the Commissario Cenni series of investigations set in Italy.
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