Rick Montoya wears cowboys boots in espresso bars, speaks nearly flawless Italian and is as comfortable dodging bullets in an Etruscan necropolis as he is hiking outside his native Santa Fe, N.Mex. Rick is the likable and inventive amateur sleuth in David P. Wagner's thoroughly enjoyable Return to Umbria, the fourth installment in a series (following 2015's Murder Most Unfortunate). Return to Umbria finds Rick in the medieval hill town of Orvieto. His uncle has sent him there to track down his young cousin, who is having an affair with a married woman. What Rick hopes will double as a mini-vacation with his girlfriend quickly turns deadly when an American tourist is found murdered. Rick teams up with an old friend, Inspector Paolo LoGuercio, and delves into a crime whose solution could disrupt the social fabric of Orvieto.
Wagner spent nine years in Italy as a foreign service officer and writes with a fluency and love of Italy, transforming what could be a staid travelogue cum cozy mystery into an engrossing and intelligent novel. The reader learns about the origin of "red tape" (thank the Vatican for that) and the architectural history of Orvieto's famed cathedral and receives a primer on the Red Brigades, while vicariously enjoying a true Margherita pizza and dodging stray bullets. With taut pacing and enough credible suspects to keep the reader guessing until the end, Return to Umbria makes for an engaging read. --David Martin, freelance writer