Colonel Mari and his wife Iolanda, invited by an American journalist friend to Fiesole, witness, along with ten other enigmatic guests from international high society, his death. Another investigation by Colonel Mari. Also in this case set in the immediate post-war period in the international high society.

July 1949 in Fiesole. Colonel Mari and his wife Iolanda spend a weekend invited by Barbara Mills, an American journalist friend of theirs. She welcomes them with exuberance by introducing them to the ten guests, all members of international high society. At the end of the welcome dinner, Barbara announces a surprise that she will unveil the following day. Mari prepares for a night of reading while Iolanda succumbs to sleep: soon, however, he finds himself scanning shadows chasing each other in the park and later listening to distant voices, then near, then vanished. The brief morning sleep makes him arrive late for breakfast, just as screams for help, deaf noises, a deadly silence arrive: Barbara Mills has been found dead. Natural death or something else? The investigation is led by the young carabinieri marshal Del Ben. Mari's collaboration is invaluable to him in listening to the testimonies of the illustrious guests: each one formulates infamous accusations against someone else in a tangle of facts and situations that were unimaginable just a few hours before. A puzzle of revelations and contradictions engages Mari to the fullest until the truth is revealed.

The author once again describes aspects of society and life in the early post-war years. Accurate, fascinating descriptions and an investigation conducted with rigour and methods typical of that historical period cannot fail to fascinate due to the originality of the narrative full of twists and turns.

Filippo Iannarone
was born in Rome. After graduating in History of Law from La Sapienza University, he continued his studies and historical research at the Vatican Archives. He worked in the ENI group as an expert in industrial relations, set up his own law firm and then became an entrepreneur in the hotel industry. Until 2011, he held positions in Confindustria and in Italian and European boards of directors. For years he has lived in Bad Honnef on the Rhine. In 2013 and 2014 he attended the creative writing school in Turin with Alessandro Baricco.