The Sicilian Inheritance
Jo Piazza
Dutton
Sara Marsala is having a bad time. Her award-winning restaurant has shuttered. She’s bankrupt. Her husband is filing for divorce and sole custody of their daughter. To cap it all, Sara’s eccentric great-aunt Rosie passed away, leaving Sara without her staunch support. Rosie was one of a kind and Sara loved her, yet she balks at Rosie’s legacy—an all expenses paid trip to the family’s homeland of Sicily. Rosie inherited a potentially valuable piece of land once owned by her mother, Serafina Forte, legendary matriarch of the family who tragically died before following her husband to America like so many others of her generation. Rosie leaves a note for Sara. It seems Serafina did not die of illness as the family believed. She was murdered.
Sara travels to her ancestral village of Caltabellessa, a sleepy maze-like place in the Sicilian countryside near Palermo, and plunges into a mess of local politics and loyalties. Everyone seems to have their own agenda, and Sara finds it hard to know who to trust. The more she learns about Serafina’s tradition-bucking life and work, the more Sara’s convinced she fell foul of the menfolk of the village. Their descendants are still around and just as hostile to her. With the Cosa Nostra casting a long shadow through her affairs and with her right to the land at stake, Sara has to keep her wits about her. Fortune brings Sara to a knife edge encounter where one slip could be fatal. Only by putting her life on the line can she learn the truth about Serafina and decide her own fate.
The Sicilian Inheritance is a powerful book, an anthem to womanhood and women’s resilience in the face of intractable male-oriented tradition. The author’s love for Sicily, the rich Sicilian culture, cuisine and history resonates throughout the story which is chock-full of twists and surprises to keep any fan of murder-mysteries happy.
