Italian Mangia Libri Interviews Camilla Trinchieri

Italian Mangia Libri posts an interview with Camilla Trinchieri about Il prezzo del silenzio.

Click the link to read Intervista a Camilla Trinchieri.

Camilla Trinchieri in Florence

Fahrenheit Site for Camilla Trinchieri

Here's Radio3 Fahrenheit's site for Camilla Trinchieri's Il prezzo del silenzio:



The review starts out well. Even us only partially literate in Italian can tell that "perfetto" means "perfect!"

"Un perfetto romanzo di detection ...."

The interview can be listened to as a PODCAST.

Raving Review: BookLoons

This just off the net. A review by Tim Davis at BookLoons.com:

"The Price of Silence - gripping and powerful as a tale of passion, sorrow, duplicity, guilt, and redemption - is a narrative told in alternating points of view: Emma's, Tom's, and Josh's. With the progress of Emma's murder trial unfolding throughout the novel, with flashback perspectives from the key characters, and with the truth about An-Ling being gradually revealed through her recovered e-mails, The Price of Silence gradually builds to a fierce crescendo within which unutterable obsessions, family tragedies, and intense secrets collide in a pulse-pounding conclusion.

As a mystery, thriller, and psychological drama, Camilla Trinchieri's spell-binding novel is a first-class literary achievement. Don't miss it! "

BookLoons.com

June 25 2008 - THE day in the life of a book translator and her author!

Erika Bianchi, translator for Il prezzo del silenzio sent in her June 25, 2008 "Il prezzo del silenzio" Day schedule.

Breaking news update. Hot off the net. Temperatures in Rome exceeding hot!
Around 800 degrees Celsius! (says Erika!)

• 7, 30 leave home and buy l'Unità, VERY FAMOUS AND READ (leftist) newspaper to read the interview with Camilla Trinchieri (Update: interview wasn't in today's edition)
  
• 7,50 train from Florence to Rome
• 9,30 arrival in Rome, meet up with Camilla at the station
• 9,31 buy Anna, another VERY FAMOUS AND READ MAGAZINE with a piece (of undefined nature) on Prezzo
• 10 am - 3 pm preparation for the race!
• 3,30 taxi to RAI studios
• 4,20-5,20 Camilla's interview at Farhenheit
  
• 5,30 fastest possible taxi to Feltrinelli bookstore in the city center
• 6 book reading
• 7,30 two more interviews for journalists, bloggers etc.
• 8,30 dinner with publishers
• 11 pm ... Total COLLAPSE!
  

Prezzo listed in top ten sellers at Nuovo Minerva Ingrosso

Il prezzo del silenzio is listed in the top ten selling books on the Nuova Minerva Ingrosso site, currently at #8!

"Prezzo" showing up in MySpace, Blogs

Dimibox on MySpace has recently listed Il prezzo del silenzio among his books.

Camiz on his WordPress Blog posted the book covers.

Italian Literature Review.


To date, 9 people have listed "Prezzo" on their shelves at aNobii


Mappi on an Italian social networking site called Splinder.

Parola del Giorno.

In raraMente.net.

The Mystery Gazette.

Thriller Magazine.

RTL 102.5 Non Stop News - Audio Interview

Radio interview on RTL 102.5 in Italian with Camilla Trinchieri. Listen here!

Il prezzo del silenzio, un thriller psicologico della scrittrice italo-americana Camilla Trinchieri: intervista all'autrice

Marcos Y Marcos Florence Event Photos

Check out the good photos from the Florence Il prezzo del silenzio book launch. Marcos Y Marcos, the publisher has posted them, with a great quote from Camilla.

From the June 19 presentation at the Edison di Firenze bookstore in Florence.
"Sono contenta di essere qui; per via di mio padre, e di una fetta della mia vita, mi sento italiana per metà. Scrivo in inglese, vivo a New York da ventotto anni, ma ho sempre portato l'Italia dentro di me. Vedere il mio romanzo pubblicato qui mi ha fatto sentire completa".

(Tentative English translation!)

"I am happy to be here; through my father, and through one of my life accomplishments, I feel part Italian. I write in English, live in New York for twenty years now, but have always carried Italy inside me. To see my book published here makes me feel complete."

Photos

Camilla Trinchieri and her translator, Erika Bianchi.

Florence Book Reading

Camilla Trinchieri and her translator Erika Bianchi, with two other authors spoke to a gathering of over 50 people, with much laughter, applause and book buying!

Camilla in white, at center. Erika in black, on the left side of the photo.

GRAZIA Magazine: Book Review

Camilla Trinchieri at NewMonde Chinese restaurant in Cary, North Carolina

The GRAZIA magazine Il prezzo del silenzio review was published with the photo above. The magazine isn't available on the internet to link to, so we've translated the review.

Blog writer comment: If there's a category for 'haiku' book reviews, this one would be a close candidate! Part of it is the Italian phrasing, which makes for swift reading in Italian, and a little abruptness in English. It's like translating from Chinese. Same thing. Abrupt, but the short phrases are so readily absorbed... except, perhaps the last line. And what do you make of the second to the last line! Is that a friendly "clearly written by a woman," or a less-than-friendly "clearly written by a woman?" It's a woman's magazine, does that help us know?

The GRAZIA Magazine review of Il prezzo del silenzio, translated into English:

Emma, a welcoming woman, teaches English to immigrants and opens the door of her home to An-ling, inviting her to stay with her family: husband and son. But the young Chinese woman dies and Emma is put on trial for her murder.

An-ling, the mysterious woman, has knocked down the wall of silence, but the truth has crushed her and the family. A novel clearly written by a woman. Background of denunciation.

From Rome to Florence, Before the Book Presentation

From Camilla:

A whirlwind of emotions. In the midst of the excitement over the Italian edition of The Price of Silence, I’m reconnecting with friends who are pouring out their feelings, their fears, sometimes, not often enough, their joys. I listen and feel with them, for them and wish I could be with them more often.

I’m reading, speaking, breathing Italian. I walk the streets of Rome and go back in time, looking at the street corner where I bought my sister some lilies for her birthday, the restaurant where I gobbled down pizza after seeing Woody Allen’s Manhattan with friends, the palazzo that used to be the Foreign Ministry where my father worked. But Rome, that for years stood still, is changing. A lot of old reference points are gone. I don’t like it. I selfishly want the milestones of my memories to be there always, even as I realize that to let go of the past is a good thing.

I’ve just arrived in Florence. I’m staying at Erika’s house. She’s the Italian translator, who has become a close friend. She fed me a wonderful champagne and salmon risotto, lots of white wine. Tomorrow night the book presentation. I’m thrilled and scared at the same time. I don’t know what to expect. Thank God Erika is here to give me courage. She has a lot of friends. They will be coming for her and, if they are half as welcoming and generous as she is, it will be a memorable evening.

Italian Radio 3 Fahrenheit! June 25 4PM - 5:20

(Imaged aggregated by A. McGaha, using 2 Radiotre Fahrenheit logos, combined with created text image of interview details.)

The Italian Radio 3 program, FAHRENHEIT, will be interviewing author Camilla Trinchieri one week from today, Wednesday June 25, between 4 and 5:20 pm in Rome, Italy. (So far we haven't seen this information posted on the Website.)

For those who didn't know, Fahrenheit is considered, the best, most serious, most intellectual, most followed, most famous, most reliable and most trusted radio program about books in Italy. When the anchorman, Marino Sinibaldi, recommends a book, people listen!

We're hoping the recording, for those of you who can understand Italian, will be posted on the Fahrenheit site http://www.radio.rai.it/RADIO3/FAHRENHEIT/index.cfm.

Maybe we'll be able to hear the interview live from remote locations. The station has online listening; frequencies all over Italy; and both webcam and podcasts. We'll have to see what's available that day for Fahrenheit. Listen online. If in Italy, here are the station frequencies by city. Radio 3 Webcam.

Radiotre FAHRENHEIT interview with Camilla Trinchieri
Wednesday June 25, 4- 5:20 PM, Rome, Italy

D la Repubblica delle Donne

Review of Camilla Trinchieri's Il prezzo del silenzio in major Italian woman's magazine! From D la Repubblica delle Donne:

Segreti in terra straniera A volte l'ingresso di uno sconosciuto nella vita delle persone produce l'apertura di faglie, smottamenti, valanghe. Soprattutto se è inquieto e irresistibilmente fragile come An-ling, l'artista cinese che un giorno si presenta al corso per stranieri a New York in cui Emma insegna inglese. Il romanzo di Camilla Trinchieri si apre in medias res: An-ling è stata uccisa, Emma è indagata, i testimoni ricostruiscono per la giuria una storia che, come sempre accade, è più complessa e dilaniante di come appaia. Emma custodisce nel segreto della sua intimità l'incidente in cui ha ucciso una figlia di due anni, il marito Tom ancora gliene vuole e il figlio adolescente Josh non sa nulla di quel passato. An-ling, col suo carico di dolore, andrà a scardinare e a esporre i segreti di ognuno. An-ling, o dell'ambiguità. Un personaggio di pura fantasia?

"Sì e no. Anch'io, come lei, mi sono sentita "straniera" in America. Mi sono trasferita perché la mia vita personale stava andando alla deriva. Avevo lavorato con Fellini in La città delle donne e la sua cartomante mi aveva predetto che negli Usa avrei trovato la mia realizzazione. All'inizio, però, è stata durissima. Vendevo la pasta De Cecco a Little Italy, e per molto tempo mi sono sentita persa, senza radici, mi tenevo a galla senza intravedere una prospettiva. Ho conosciuto il mio attuale marito dopo una settimana dal mio arrivo, ma entrambi eravamo così spaventati dall'idea di rientrare in un rapporto amoroso che la cosa ci ha messo tre anni ad accadere".

An-ling agisce come una bomba nella vita apparentemente tranquilla di questa insegnante italiana... "È sempre un elemento esterno a far piazza pulita delle difese che ci si è attentamente costruiti. Emma e Tom hanno sepolto per anni la rabbia e la disperazione per la morte della loro bambina. An-ling risveglia in Emma l'amore materno che ha sempre avuto paura di dare al secondo figlio Josh. In Tom risveglia la rabbia sopita. In Josh la curiosità adolescenziale per la sessualità, tanto più che né lui né il padre riescono a decifrare la natura del rapporto tra Emma e An-ling". Nel finale sembra che l'organismo-famiglia digerisca il crimine... "Ma siamo sicuri che sia stato un crimine? Henry James parla di "fatal futility of fact". Sono d'accordo, la realtà è ben altro che oggettività. Ora tocca al lettore interpretarla".

Monica Capuani - Camilla Trinchieri, Il prezzo del silenzio, Marcos y Marcos, 16 euro "

From DLib Dmemory


D la Repubblica delle donne no 601, 34 D lib, p34
[http://periodici.repubblica.it/d/?num=601]

Reviews on the Marcos Y Marcos Website

Link to Marcos Y Marcos.

Note from Camilla on her Trip to Rome - A Homecoming

Camilla writes:

Tomorrow I leave for Rome where I lived and worked for seventeen years. I go every year to see family, friends, to reconnect with my Italian self.

This year is different. My book, The Price of Silence, has been translated into Italian. My heart started dancing when I found out and hasn’t stopped. I’m half Italian (on my father’s side) and half American and living in one country and then the other, I have always felt split in two. Now I’m whole thanks to this book, to my words being in both languages. I feel such joy. Yes, it’s wonderful to have the book sold to another country. The money is nice and it’s flattering. One can hope it will sell well, hope royalties will come in. That’s all true and I’m not denying that it’s part of my joy, but there’s so much more. Jeffrey, a friend of mine, put it in a nutshell. “It’s a homecoming,” he said.

I’m spending a week in Rome to catch up with everyone.

Then off to Florence on the 19^th for what the Italians call a "book presentation" during which a well-known author will introduce me and chat with me about the books.

My translator, Erika Bianchi, is from Florence and she’s promised me she’ll fill the bookshop, which is great. I’ve sat behind a desk in too many bookstores waiting and chatting with the staff. Afterwards we’re going to go off with her friends to a nearby bar for a glass of wine and some delicious munchies. After a few days in Florence I’m going back to Rome for more family and friends and one more presentation.

Then back to New York and my next story.

Erika Bianchi, the translator-she’s great, a redhead with the most enormous blue eyes I’ve ever seen. She’s a classics professor who teaches American students during their junior year abroad and in summer programs. I got a chance to meet her here in New York when she came to visit her best friend, who just happens to live a few blocks from me in Greenwich Village. Erika’s translation is lovely. Not once did I miss my English sentences. I felt as if I had written them, as if the story had been conceived in Italian. I still speak the language well (fluently when I left 28 years ago), but the only Italian school I went to was kindergarten with the nuns. My writing is filled with errors, with Americanisms. I’m lucky that the Italian publisher, Marcos y Marcos hired Erika.

But then the transformation of The Price of Silence into Il prezzo del silenzio has been filled with luck. I’m riding high right now. And even if the book sells only modestly I’ll still have the sensation that the two sides of me have finally come together. And I’ll still be happy. Maybe it doesn’t make much sense, but it’s given me an ecstatic feeling I’m not going to cross examine.

Ciao

Camilla Trinchieri Tops Marcos Y Marcos' Website

Marcos and Marcos has placed author Camilla Trinchieri to the center top of their main website.

Grazia Magazine to talk about Il prezzo del silenzio

Stay posted! Grazia magazine, one of the premier ladies magazines in Italy will have an article on Il prezzo del silenzio!

Here's the link to the Grazia blog.

A sample cover of the Italian GRAZIA magazine is below. Click for subscription info!

And in more stores!

Take a look at Il prezzo del silenzio in bookstores in Italy.

Il prezzo del silenzio is in stores in Italy

Italian Radio Interviews Author

Two Italian radio stations have interviewed Camilla about her book Il prezzo del silenzio, and about her upcoming visit to Italy. We're hoping the interviews will be recorded for online listening, stay posted. The daughter of an Italian diplomat, and having lived many years in Rome, Camilla is fluent in Italian; both interviews were in Italian.

La Feltrinelli bookstore in Rome Announces Event

Marcos Y Marcos Events Page

Marcos Y Marcos Website for Il prezzo del silenzio

Italian Publisher Marcos Y Marcos Lists Author Readings

On the events page for Italian publisher Marcos Y Marcos, the Camilla Trinchieri events in Florence and Rome are listed. In the photos on the page for previous author readings, you can see Camilla's book cover on the wall.

Invitation to June 19th Reading in Florence, Italy at 18:30

Invitation to Book Reading in Rome, Italy - June 25 6PM

The invitation is published.

Camilla Trinchieri will be reading from the Italian translation of The Price of Silence, Il Prezzo del silenzio in Rome, Italy on Wednesday, June 25, at 6pm.

Le Librerie Feltrinelli
via del Babuino 39/40
Rome, Italy
tel: 06 36001842

For a larger version, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Price of Silence Book Reviews

Here are links to some of the many book reviews on The Price of Silence.
You can also find highlights of many of the reviews on the Reviews page of the Camilla Trinchieri Website.

US Amazon.com

Genre Go Round Reviews, May 22, 2008

Gumshoe Review June 2008

Australia's Chaos.com

Canada's Amazon.ca

On Writing: Writing My Way Home

Camilla writes about how she began writing during a new phase in her life:


I left Rome in the summer of 1980, eager to make a new life for myself in America like so many Italians before me. New York City was the only possible choice for my new home. I had two wonderful, supportive friends from my college days at Barnard and those four years in the city--during which I played, sometimes studied and above all discovered my independence--were the best years of my life. Or so I remembered, which is all that counts.

to continue click here

Author to Launch Italian edition of Price of Silence in Italy

Author, Camilla Trinchieri, will be returning to her Italian roots to launch Il prezzo del silenzio, The Price of Silence, in its Italian translation.

Trinchieri will be reading at these book stores in Italy:

Libreria Edison in Piazza della Reppublica in Florence
Feltrinelli bookstore (The Barnes & Noble of Italy) in Rome

The Price of Silence (Paperback)

The Price of Silence (Paperback)
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Soho Press (June 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1569474974
ISBN-13: 978-1569474976
Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches

Reviews
Amazon.com; CamillaTrinchieri.com; Amazon.ca ;

Il Prezzo del Silenzio

The Price of Silence now translated into Italian by Erika Bianchi!
Available in Italy in stores now.


This summary in Italian from RARAMente.net:

Manhattan.

Emma insegna inglese agli immigrati, è sposata e ha un figlio adolescente.
È accusata di aver ucciso An-ling, la ragazza con cui ha convissuto qualche mese. Mentre il processo incalza, e i testimoni consegnano i loro frammenti di verità, Emma, il marito Tom e il figlio Josh, a turno, ci confidano i retroscena del loro rapporto con An-ling. An-ling scivola nella classe di Emma una mattina, con l’aria spaurita. Parla a stento l’inglese, sostiene di essere appena arrivata dalla Cina. Emma l’accoglie d’impulso nella sua famiglia e nella sua vita. Ma An-ling si rivela sfuggente e selvatica, spiazza tutti con le sue provocazioni, le sue bugie, la sua determinazione a scavare nel passato di quella famiglia apparentemente normale. In un crescendo di tensione, affiorano emozioni sepolte nel cuore di ciascuno: ferite ancora aperte e nuovi potenti desideri, sempre più clandestini, sempre più pericolosi. Tutto fa pensare che sia stata Emma a uccidere An-ling, ma pian piano emerge che anche Tom, e persino Josh, avrebbero avuto un buon motivo per farlo. E il dubbio domina fino all’ultima pagina.

An-ling, ragazza misteriosa, ha abbattuto il muro del silenzio: verrà travolta da troppe verità.

Camilla Trinchieri nasce a Praga, figlia di un diplomatico italiano e di un’americana. Gira il mondo, studia a New York e va a vivere a Roma. Per diciassette anni lavora nel cinema come assistente al doppiaggio; è orgogliosa di aver lavorato con Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Lina Wertmüller, Marcello Mastroianni, Sofia Loren. Poi la sua vita privata va in tilt e Camilla decide di lasciare l’Italia. Un lettore di tarocchi le rivela che a New York si sarebbe ricongiunta con il lato più creativo di sé. Nell’attesa si guadagna da vivere vendendo pasta De Cecco a Little Italy. Raccontando la sua nuova vita in lunghe lettere agli amici romani, scopre il piacere di narrare.

Storie di donne, sentimenti, misteri, con il punto di vista peculiare di una newyorkese nata a Praga che si sente molto italiana. I primi libri li firma Camilla Crespi: Trinchieri è difficile da pronunciare. Per Il prezzo del silenzio usa il suo vero nome perché ci ha messo tutta se stessa. Camilla divide il suo tempo tra il Greenwich Village, dove abita e scrive, e Brooklyn, dove dipinge. Si ritiene molto fortunata perché passa le giornate facendo quello che le piace e le notti con l’uomo che ama.

Camilla Trinchieri
IL PREZZO DEL SILENZIO
320 pagine, 16 euro
traduzione di Erika Bianchi

IN LIBRERIA DAL 29 MAGGIO 2008
Marcos Y Marcos

Added: April 30th 2008
Reviewer: redazione raraMente.net

"The Trouble With" Series listed in "Mysteriously Disapppearing" Listmania List

Camilla Trinchieri's The Trouble With series was listed in an Amazon Listmania! list called:

More Mysteriously Disappearing Mystery Series, A Listmania! list by A. Sugarman "book maven" (San Francisco, CA United States)

The Trouble with a Hot Summer

The Trouble with a Hot Summer
A Simona Griffo Mystery
by Camilla T. Crespi
June 1997, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-017662-8

Where I Get My Ideas

I was staying at a friend's cottage out in East Hampton. Looking out of her picture window in the very early morning I saw a man row across the window's view. An hour later I saw him row back into view. When I asked my friend about him, she explained he had suffered a heart attack and rowed for exercise every morning without fail. Intrigued by the words "without fail" I watched him the next morning and wondered, what if he doesn't come back?

Setting

Long Island -- East Hampton, Springs, South Hampton hospital, Sag Harbor.
New York City -- Upper West Side, Union Square, Greenwich Village.
Plot

Simona is at the end of a troubled vacation with Stan and Willy in the Hamptons when she shares iced coffee and a foggy dawn with Springs resident and advertising genius, Bud Warren. Mistaking Simona for a licensed P.I., thanks to the maneuverings of Simona's friend Dmitri, Bud asks Simona to investigate his ex-wife's death from drowning exactly one year ago. Bud swears it was murder even though the police decreed suicide. There's a heat wave going on and Simona agrees to meet Bud that evening in the cool waters of Gardiner's Bay to discuss the matter further. The only problem is that Bud never comes back from his morning row.

Recurring Characters

* Stan and Willy Greenhouse
* Dmitri K.
* Raf Garcia, Stan's partner
* Gregory Price, Simona's co-worker

Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Crespi softens the dark edges of her mystery with deft humor, allowing Simona to enjoy the Hamptons' hot spots, rub elbows with celebs and entertain a mild flirtation with the owner of a trendy restaurant. The mix of breezy vacation fun and somber matters of death, passion and art provides the tension needed to make this a sultry summer read.

Mostly Murder
A brisk mystery and a fun read and Camilla Crespi is one hot writer.

Mystery News
For well-knit stories told in a humorous vein Crespi is right up there with today's best.

The Boston Sunday Globe
The dialogue is lively, the mystery reasonably mysterious, and the sense of place is appealing.

The Beginning

That magical light that enticed countless artists was gone. Gardiner's Bay, twenty feet ahead, had disappeared during the night like Brigadoon. The white windmill of Gardiner's Island across the bay had turned into a memory. It was an August Sunday in Springs, a hamlet just north of East Hampton on Long Island, New York. At 6:03 AM the temperature was seventy-four degrees. The sun a white blister wrapped in gray gauze. Depending on your mood, the fog was dreary, romantic or scary.

Bud Warren was unusually talkative. "The ugly cliché. Greed and vanity destroying nature's beauty." He wiped his forehead with a tanned, gnarled hand. "When I first came out here in '56, the place was still unspoiled." Bud poured coffee. "This heat we've been getting? Man-made. Ozone layer's thinner than a Park Avenue wife."

The Hamptons was expected to reach ninety-three for the fourth day in a row. New York City, one hundred again. This was the third morning Bud and I met at this hour. We'd mostly stared at the water's edge and the fog beyond.

More

Recipe -- Cool Pasta

Serves four

* 4 ears of corn
* 4 large ripe tomatoes
* 2 bunches scallions
* 4 tbsp. olive oil
* 1 cup loosley packed basil leaves
* 5 large fresh mint leaves
* 1 lb. pasta shells
* salt and pepper to taste

Cut corn off the cobs with a serrated knife. Reserve the cobs. Seed and dice the tomatoes. Trim and thinly slice the scallions, including the light green part.

Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add the scallions and sauté over medium heat for 3 minutes. Mix in corn. Cook for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and season vegetables well with salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes more.

Tear basil and mint leaves. Remove skillet from heat and add leaves. Allow the vegetables to cool in a large serving bowl.

Add the reserved cobs to a large pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Add the pasta shells.

When shells are al dente (approx. 12 mins), drain and remove cobs. Add pasta to vegetables in bowl. Mix well, check for seasoning, and serve.

Buon appetito!

The Trouble with a Bad Fit

The Trouble with a Bad Fit
A Simona Griffo Mystery
by Camilla T. Crespi
1996, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-109-4080, Harper Paperbacks, ISBN 0-06-109408-0

Where I Get My Ideas

Working with several fashion accounts during my advertising days, I became fascinated with the business of clothes. With Bad Fit I got a chance to study the rag trade and find out how a piece of cloth develops into a dress and tons of hype. I did a lot of research for this book, hanging out in a design studio and at the Fashion Institute of Technology library. I came up with a lot of information that I was afraid to include in the book for fear of slowing the mystery down, so I added "fashion footnotes" in the back of the book for those readers who want to know more. The rag trade the way it was known to the countless immigrants who survived on it is disappearing. As a recent immigrant I wanted to tip my hat to that business.

In this one, I also got a chance to pit Stan against Simona as they work on the same case. I guess I like to test their love for each other.

Setting

New York: the garment district, Greenwich Village, Union Square, Soho, Chinatown, Bryant Park, Upper West Side, Penn Station South, Long Island.
Plot

Roberta Riddle, an aging designer who is trying to make a comeback and one of Simona's difficult clients, has one week to get her act together before the New York ready-to-wear spring/summer fashion shows. Her new partner, Charlie, is giving her problems. Someone is playing nasty tricks on her. Then her muse and fit model, Phyllis, gets her head bludgeoned with Roberta's jade Buddha in the ladies room where Charlie left a bloody fingerprint. Stan Greenhouse is assigned the case. Roberta knows that Stan is also Simona's boyfriend. She offers Simona five thousand dollars to help clear Charlie.

Simona, whose own job is at risk, wants to keep a client happy even though Stan doesn't like it one bit. When someone starts chasing after Simona, she hires a bodyguard -- Dmitri K, a Stalin look-alike who drives a taxi, uses his cousin's pink Cadillac as an office, and sells hair on the side. They soon become sparring partners and fast friends. Careening from one side of Manhattan to another, they piece together the fragments of everyone's past which comes together just as Roberta's models sashay down the runway of the fashion tent in Bryant Park.

Recurring Characters

* Stan Greenhouse
* Raf Garcia, his partner
* Willy Greenhouse
* Gregory Price, Simona's good friend at work last seen in Small Raise

Reviews

A fast paced thriller...Ms. Crespi has an eye for fashion detail that gives the novel a cutting edge. -- The Sunday New York Times Book Review

This is a clever little novel with lots of insider bits about high fashion and snappy characters. -- Toronto Globe & Mail

Quick-moving prose, good garment-district atmosphere and a heady mixture of skeletons in the closet makes this a recommended title. -- Library Journal

Sprightly, sunny, and gossipy: a welcome return. -- Kirkus Reviews

The Beginning

"Garmentos stab you in the chest!" Phyllis announced.

Roberta Riddle ripped a muslin sleeve from the jacket Phyllis was modeling.

From the open workroom door, the tailor scowled. The sample maker nodded. The production manager jiggled his sneakered foot.

Roberta ripped out the other sleeve.

Recipe -- Schmatta* Pasta

Serves six

* 2 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
* 8 tbsps olive oil
* 1 lb. white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
* 1/2 lb. shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
* 1/2 lb. portobello mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
* salt and pepper to taste
* 2 slices bacon, diced
* 4 cloves garlic, peeled
* 1 (28 oz.) can peeled Italian tomatoes
* 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
* 1/2 cup flat-leafed parsley, chopped
* 1 lb fresh lasagne**
* 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Soak dried porcini mushrooms in 1 1/2 cups of warm water for 30 minutes. Remove the softened porcini from liquid and rinse under water. Chop. Drain mushroom liquid through a sieve lined with a paper towel and reserve.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Heat 2 tbsps. of olive oil in large skillet. Sauté fresh mushrooms in batches over high heat until water evaporates. With each batch, add oil as needed (reserving 2 tbsps). Season with salt and pepper.

In another skillet sauté bacon until crisp. Remove bacon and discard bacon grease. Heat the reserved 2 tbsps. of oil in the same skillet and cook garlic cloves until golden. Add tomatoes, mushroom liquid, bacon, and red pepper flakes. Cook over high heat for ten minutes. Remove garlic and season to taste. Add all the mushrooms and mix well. Cook for another five minutes to heat through. Add parsley.

Tear fresh lasagne into three-inch pieces to make schmatte. Drop lasagne pieces (rags) into the boiling water. Mix well to keep them form sticking to each other. Cook until al dente (three minutes) and drain.

Pour half the sauce and half the Parmesan in a large serving dish. Add schmatte and mix well. Pour rest of mushroom sauce and rest of Parmesan on top. Mix again and serve.

*Schmatta in Yiddish means rag. The clothing business was often referred to as the rag trade or the schmatta trade.

**Dried lasagne can also be used -- crack in half before boiling. Cook until al dente (approx. 10-12 minutes).

NOTE: Recipe can be prepared in advance and kept in refrigerator for two days or can be frozen. If not serving immediately, cook the pasta for only two minutes. Reheat pasta and sauce in 400-degree oven until piping hot (15 minutes approx.).

The Trouble with Going Home

The Trouble with Going Home
A Simona Griffo Mystery
by Camilla T. Crespi
1995, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-109153-7, Harper Paperbacks, ISBN 0-06-109153-7

Where I Get My Ideas

While writing the previous book, Thin Ice, it became clear to me that Simona needed to clear up the debris from her past if she wanted her American life to go anywhere so I took her back home to Rome to face some old ghosts. In this book I wanted to deal with loyalty, tradition, and the power of Italian family ties.

Because Rome is laden with history and art, I begin each chapter with a quote about the city which also connects with the events described in the chapter.

Going Home has been optioned by Dolphin Entertainment for a possible TV movie.

Setting

A Rome tourists seldom see.

Plot

Simona flies back to Rome to find out what has gone wrong in her parent's marriage. She hasn't been back more that an hour when she witnesses the mugging and stabbing death of a young American art student just outside the building where her mother is temporarily living with Mirella, an old friend of the family's and the dead student's art teacher. When the murder weapon is traced back to Mirella's kitchen, Mirella, her son Luke and even her 92-year-old Nonna are suspects. Simona's mother asks Simona to help clear Mirella's family of any suspicion. Simona agrees, although she suspects her mother is really only trying to distract her from finding out what has happened to her father who seems to have disappeared.

Simona soon finds out that Tamar, the dead student, may have been carrying a lost Leonardo da Vinci drawing in the satchel that was stolen the day she was killed -- a drawing that may have been stolen from the crumbling palazzo of a prince who seems very much interested in Simona's mother or taken from the home of a rich American businessman and collector with whom Mirella is in love. Even Simona's ex-husband, who keeps showing up playing the charmer, was somehow involved with the dead student. As Simona tries to help her friends and stay connected to Stan by long distance calls, she has to sort out her own ambivalent feelings as to where home really is.
Recurring Characters

* Stan Greenhouse
* his son Willy

Reviews

A mouth-watering caper. Murder may provide the impetus for the action in this book, but it is a particularly Roman lust for life that keeps us turning the pages. -- The Denver Post

...the picture Crespi paints of the extended Italian family is emotionally complex, and her knowledge of love for them is worth the visit. -- The Drood Review

RECOMMENDED...evocative descriptions of the Eternal City make an interesting backdrop to a compelling mystery. -- Deadly Pleasures

Camilla Crespi makes the city come alive. -- Critics' Choice, America Online

Crespi imbues Simona with new depths and self-revelations, ultimately providing a wonderfully satisfying Roman holiday not only for Simona, but for the readers as well. -- Kate's Mystery Books Newsletter

A fitting background for a mystery shrouded in the examination of the many forms of love, Rome is beautiful and deadly. A very clever puzzle will satisfy but the images of the Eternal City in springtime will captivate and transport the armchair traveler who longs for the rich tastes and smells of Italy. -- Mystery Lovers Bookshop News

The Beginning

"Go thou to Rome, at once the Paradise."
--Percy Bysshe Shelley, Adonais

It was the girl who held my attention.

The scooter had whizzed in front of me -- two heads and a blur of dark, long hair -- but the girl on the sidewalk looked straight at me, her expression thoughtful, not the stunned surprise I expected.
Recipe -- Pasta Allegria (Happiness Pasta)

Serves four as a main course

* 4 small and firm zucchini
* 2 large yellow bell peppers
* 1 large Japanese eggplant (long and slim, the color is light purple. It is sweeter than Italian eggplant.)
* 2 lbs ripe plum tomatoes
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 10 large leaves of basil
* 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
* 1 lb short tubular pasta (penne or rigatoni)
* Salt and pepper
* Kosher salt for pasta water

To be prepared four to six hours before serving:

Remove grill from broiler and cover with tin foil. Turn on broiler. Slice zucchini in 1/8" horizontal strips. Repeat procedure for eggplant. Cut peppers, remove seeds and white cores and slice into 1" strips. Halve the tomatoes.

Lay out zucchini on foil-covered grill, season with salt and pepper, and grill on top rung of broiler for 4 minutes on each side. When done, remove to a large serving bowl.

Repeat procedure for eggplant and peppers (peppers may take longer depending on thickness). The vegetables should turn golden brown, with a few burnt edges. Broil tomatoes, cut side up, for 10-12 minutes. Mix the cooked vegetables together and cut them into smaller pieces inside the bowl. Add minced garlic and hand-shredded basil leaves. Check for seasoning and correct if necessary. Add olive oil. Let the vegetables macerate in the bowl at room temperature for 4 to 6 hours. (If it is a hot day, you may put in refrigerator, but remove at least an hour before serving.)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta. Cook until al dente (10 to 12 minutes depending on quality of pasta). Drain, add to vegetable bowl. Mix well and serve.

The Trouble with Thin Ice

The Trouble with Thin Ice
A Simona Griffo Mystery
by Camilla T. Crespi
1994, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-109554-5, Harper Paperbacks, ISBN 0-06-109154-5

Where I Get My Ideas

I visited a friend in Ridgefield, Connecticut, at Christmas time. Her house overlooks a small lake. I looked out of the window at a peaceful scene of misty snow. It was incredibly beautiful. What better place to kill someone?

Coming from New York City I was surprised not to see any African-Americans so I thought, what if an African-American wanted to buy the estate next to the home where she grew up, the daughter of servants to an influential, often unsavory family? What if the ice covering the lake (read lake as metaphor for the past) is so thin, the slightest pressure will make it crack open? I had fun weaving in choking family ties, secrets created from love and hate. The past plays a strong role in all my stories.

In Thin Ice I try to deal with prejudice, with our preconceptions of who people are, with the delicate balance needed to make any relationship work.

It's my first hardcover!

Setting

Fieldston, a made-up town in Connecticut between Danbury and Ridgefield; the Danbury hospital and mall; and the Upper East Side of New York City.
Plot

It's Christmas time. Simona and Stan go to the Sleepy Hollow Inn to spend their first vacation together and to attend the New Year's Eve wedding of their friends Kesho and Richard. The first problem that arises is that Stan, at the last minute, decided to bring along Willy, his precocious, hostile 14-year-old son. Not exactly the romantic vacation Simona had in mind.

The second problem is that Simona, trying to save a doe from drowning in the half-frozen lake, uncovers the body of Elisabeth Dobson with Kesho's earring nearby. Kesho is accused of the murder. much to the satisfaction of the Dobsons who do not want her as a neighbor. Simona wonders if one of the Dobsons wasn't in fact the murderer. They stood to inherit Elisabeth's home, a Frank Lloyd Wright estate called RockPerch. Why did Elisabeth's husband vanish without a trace eight years earlier? What is Myrna Dobson hiding by getting drunk every night? Why does Charles Dobson dislike his son so intensely?

When Stan is called away to his mother's bedside in Florida, Simona and Willy form an uneasy alliance to help Kesho and uncover the story that led to two deaths in a quiet, snowy village.

In Defense of the Female Amateur Sleuth: One of the characters resists Simona's questions.

"You're not the police. You have no authority to ask anything of me. You're not even some private investigator."

Simona answers: "Women have never waited for authority, have we? We just go ahead and do whatever has to be done century after century. Even when we don't get recognition or a share of the authority, we still keep doing what needs to be done."

Recurring Characters

* Stan Greenhouse

Reviews

Brisk and continuously engaging. Rich in atmosphere and buoyed by wry wit, Crespi's briskly paced narrative calls for an encore. -- Publisher's Weekly (a starred review)

An unusually well-hidden killer. -- Kirkus Reviews

The imprint of architect Frank Lloyd Wright enhances this fourth Simona Griffo mystery, who loves to cook and solve murders, is delightful even when problems increase as she tries to help a friend. -- Oklahoman

Simona exercises her adorable ways with a vengeance. It is Simona's keen intelligence, however, not her bubbly personality, that wins the boy's respect, keeps the bride-to-be out of jail and resolves the old, bitter feuds of a socially hermetic community where the daughters of black servants are not meant to get too uppity. -- The New York Times

Simona Griffo is an appealing protagonist, and the frozen woods of rural Connecticut come alive in Crespi's writing. -- Cleveland Plain Dealer

The Beginning

"Where did you throw my pajamas?" I surfaced from a whirlpool of sheets and quilts on the four-poster bed, hands searching. Greenhouse, naked under the sheets, kept busy with various parts of my body.

"Ouch." I was stalling for time.

"Yum!" was Greenhouse's reply.

We were on our first night of what was to be a week's vacation at the Sleepy Hollow Inn in Fieldston, Connecticut. It was also my first extended vacation with Greenhouse after two years of on and off dating and my first ever with Greenhouse & Son. Too many firsts for relaxation.

Recipe -- Comfort Pasta

Serves six hungry stomachs

* 4 tbsps. olive oil
* 1 large carrot, minced
* 1 celery stalk, minced
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 4 garlic cloves, peeled
* 2 lbs. beef chuck, cut into bite-sized pieces
* 2 cups flour
* 2 cups white wine (optional)
* 1 tbsp. tomato paste
* 5 plum tomatoes, quartered
* 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
* 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
* 1 1/2 lbs. rigatoni
* 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
* 1/4 lb. fresh spinach

Select a heavy-bottomed pan with lid in which all ingredients can fit. Sauté garlic cloves in oil until lightly browned, stirring well. Put flour in a paper bag. Discard cloves and raise the flame to high. In batches drop meat in the paper bag and shake. Flour meat right before adding to pan or else it will get gummy. Add meat to hot oil in batches and brown well on all sides. Add the wine and cook over high heat until almost evaporated. Remove the browned meat and set aside. Lower flame and add onion, scraping the bottom of the pan. Sauté onion until translucent. Add tomato paste, stir and cook 2 minutes. Add a tablespoon of broth if onions are too dry. Add celery and carrot, stir and cook 3 minutes more. Add the meat and accumulated juices. Add tomatoes, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Stir. Add broth. When broth starts to boil, lower flame, partially cover pan, and simmer meat for 1 1/2 hours.

Can be prepared ahead of time up to this point. Stew can be frozen.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.

Cook stew 1/2 hour more at a low boil before serving. Wash and stem spinach.

Add rigatoni to boiling water. When al dente, drain. Add spinach to stew and stir. Spinach will wilt with the heat. Pour half of the stew into a big pasta bowl. Add half the Parmesan. Stir. Add the drained rigatoni. Stir. Add the rest of the stew and Parmesan. Stir again and serve.

Buon appetito!

The Trouble with Too Much Sun

The Trouble with Too Much Sun
A Simona Griffo Mystery
by Trella Crespi


Where I Get My Ideas

I'd been to a few Club Meds and thought the idyllic setting would be a great backdrop for a murder. Plus I needed a vacation badly.

A Sense of Place -- Imagining a story without first knowing where it takes place would be impossible for me. I think it has to do with feeling rootless for most of my life. I grab on to a place for dear life, hoping it will never go away.

Setting

La Caravelle, Club Med, Guadeloupe. The villages of Pointe-à-Pitre and Sainte-Anne, Carbet Falls, and Soufrière volcano.
Plot

When Simona's boss gets called back to New York on an agency emergency, she suddenly finds herself in charge of a publicity shoot for Beau Soleil, a sun product line, on the island of Guadaloupe. The job does not proceed smoothly. The photographer is morose and difficult. Simona feels fat and lonely. The model has rocks thrown at her. The island guide Simona hired turns out to be mixed up with gun runners and voodoo. When Simona tries to return a lost two-year-old boy to his mother, she finds the woman's body under the sail of a Windsurfer. The commissioner in charge, Cristophe Beaujoie, believes someone from the club is involved. Simona wants to help.

"Why do you wish to mix yourself up with violent death?" the commissioner asks Simona.

"It comforts me to know that if I work hard enough, I can come up with solutions."

In this book I worked hard to give the reader a sense of the island, its people, its history and cuisine. I was particularly taken by the folktales, and I created a character Papa "La Bouche" (the mouth) who weaves the history of the slaves and folktales together. The story is also drenched in the sensuality of the tropics.

Recurring Characters

* Ellen Price, the model Simona discovered in A Small Raise.
* Stan Greenhouse, her on-and-off-again lover

Reviews

...Crespi creates a believable inner life for Simona, a transplanted Italian with a keen interest in human nature, lush descriptions of paradise and a whodunit plot that keeps the pages turning. -- Publisher's Weekly
The Beginning

I was buried up to my neck in the gloriously welcoming, warm sand of La Caravelle -- Club Med on Guadeloupe, while Mozart's Jupiter Symphony was allegroing over the sound system to the rhythm of creaking tree frogs and breaking waves. In the past three happy days the late-January sun had warmed, burned, and finally tanned me.

Now it was sunset time, a quiet affair in the Caribbean.

Recipe -- Pasta Crisi (Crisis Pasta)

Serves 4 as a main course

* 2 lbs. ripe plum tomatoes -- thickly sliced lengthwise
* 1/2 bunch arugula -- leaves torn into small pieces (Substitute with watercress if arugula not available.)
* 2 cloves garlic -- minced
* 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
* 1 large mozzarella -- diced
* 8 sun-dried tomato halves (packed in olive oil) -- drained and chopped
* 1/3 cup olive oil
* 1 lb. imported dried penne or spaghetti
* salt and pepper to taste

Heat broiler.

In large serving bowl mix olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes, sun-dried tomatoes, and mozzarella.

When broiler is very hot, line the fresh tomato slices on an aluminum-wrapped broiler pan, season with salt and pepper, and broil tomatoes until their edges turn black -- 10 minutes approx. (repeat this process if pan is not large enough to accommodate all the slices.)

Add broiled tomato slices to serving bowl. Add arugula. This sauce can be prepared a few hours ahead of time. Best served at room temperature.

Cook the pasta in a large pot filled with salted boiling water. When the pasta is al dente, drain and transfer to serving bowl. Toss all the ingredients together, letting the hot pasta soften the mozzarella.

Eat and forget the crisis!

The Trouble with Moonlighting

The Trouble with Moonlighting
A Simona Griffo Mystery
by Trella Crespi

Where I Get My Ideas

I wanted to bring my Italian life into this one to flesh out Simona's past so I gave her a two-week vacation to act as dialogue coach for an Italian film crew shooting New York locations. Again the autobiographical intrudes heavily. The film director, Sara Varni, is modeled after Lina Wertmüller and the male film star bears a strong resemblance to Marcello Mastroianni, people I worked with often.

Setting

New York City -- Lincoln Center, the Upper West Side, Spanish Harlem, Greenwich Village, Soho, the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, the tony Royalton Hotel.
Plot

Simona's dialogue coach stint starts with the glamorous Hollywood star nearly getting electrocuted in the Lincoln Center fountain during a shoot. Simona will also have the pleasant job of finding Johanna dead in her fancy Upper West Side apartment. The still photographer, Toni Berto, Johanna's lover and Simona's old friend, is accused of the murder. Simona, overriding the objections of her detective lover, jumps in to help Toni and uncovers old and new obsessions. It's also a story about loyalty and Simona's search to find her American legs which leads her to make mistakes.

More about names -- Some people objected to a man being named Toni with an i. That's the Italian spelling of the name and since Toni is Sicilian, it would have been wrong to spell his name Tony.

Recurring Characters

* Stan Greenhouse, her NYPD homicide detective lover
* Raf Garcia, Stan's partner

Reviews

[regarding Small Raise and Moonlighting]: Both these books are fine mysteries, well and fairly plotted. But Trella Crespi deserves special congratulations for her characterization of Simona. Crespi has made Simona confident and uncertain, happy with her life and regretting choices made, self-sufficient and, just occasionally lonely. In the hands of some authors the results would seem inconsistent and irritating, but Crespi's writing makes Simona seem very very human. And Crespi has given Simona a normal love life, with lows as well as highs, with everyone doing the best they can and hoping things will work out at last. The reasons for this are numerous as they are trivial, but the end result is a heroine who rings true. -- The Drood Review of Mystery

As the series progresses, she [Simona] will undoubtedly become more skilled in her search for information and more discriminating about what she seeks. I hope she will also become more analytical. At times I grew tired of her efforts to assuage the feelings of the other suspects, but then a less-involved amateur sleuth would not have lingered to create the delicious Sicilian Good Fish Salad, whose recipe concludes the book. -- Mystery Scene

Author comment -- Simona is starting her life over again. She's new at sleuthing and is propelled by emotion and intuition. Give her a chance to settle, to come of age all over again in America. My aim is to give the reader the arc of a woman's life.

The Beginning

Things were getting off to a fine start on my moonlighting job. I was standing on skyscraper-high stiletto heels, wearing a summer evening dress one choking size too small and being sprayed by the wind-swept fountain mist at Lincoln Center on an unusually cold September midnight.

Recipe -- Sicilian Good Fish Salad

Serves four

* 1 19-oz. can of cannellini beans
* 1 15-oz. can of corn kernels
* 1 heart of celery sliced very thin -- about two cups
* 1 bunch scallions sliced -- green part included
* 1/2 red pepper diced very small (for color)
* 3 hearts of palm sliced (optional)
* 1 1-inch tuna steak or 2 cans of light meat tuna
* 4 large basil leaves

Dressing:
* 1+1/2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar or 1 tbsp. lemon juice
* 4 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
* salt and pepper
* 1 clove of garlic -- minced

Drain the beans and the corn, and put in a serving bowl. Add sliced celery, scallions, red pepper, hearts of palm. If using tuna steak, sear it in a tbsp. of oil in a very hot skillet three minutes per side. Let cool and slice. Add to bowl. If using canned tuna, drain and add. Tear basil leaves into small pieces and add to bowl.

In a small bowl mix salt, pepper and garlic to lemon juice or balsamic vinegar. Add olive oil. Whip together well, pour in tuna bowl, and gently mix all ingredients. Serve at room temperature with hearty bread and chilled white wine. Buon appetito!

The Trouble with a Small Raise

The Trouble with a Small Raise
A Simona Griffo Mystery
by Trella Crespi

Where I Get My Ideas

I was angry with my boss. I wanted to kill him. When I told him I'd committed murder on paper and he was the corpse, his response was, "A lot of women have written about me." I may just have to kill him again.

Setting

New York City -- Greenwich Village where she lives, the Union Square area where she works.
Plot

Simona comes to the advertising agency early one Monday morning, hoping to catch her boss and ask for a long-deserved raise. Instead she finds him dead. She is busy working on a new perfume campaign, but she's appointed the agency's liaison with the police. That's how she gets to spend time with Stan Greenhouse and his partner Raf Garcia. She shares cooking tips with Raf, but Stan is the one who gives her hormones a big surge. When Simona gets implicated in her boss's death, she sets out to clear herself.

There are a lot of characters in A Small Raise. Apart from giving the reader a fun mystery, I was trying to describe the New York advertising world which is full of many egos. I added a Cast of Characters at the beginning, something I've continued in my other mysteries.

Reviews

Nothing spoils the fun of this thoroughly engrossing whodunit, introducing one of the boldest and most likable of female sleuths. -- Publisher's Weekly

Ms. Crespi truly shines in the humor department....Though her characterization of Simona Griffo was wonderful and her portrayal of the inner workings of an ad agency was realistic and richly detailed, Ms. Crespi did not write what I consider a taut, well-honed mystery. There are far too many characters to keep up with: twenty-three to be exact, many of whom had French, Italian or Spanish names -- pretty darned confusing when trying to figure out the culprit. -- Mostly Murder

Author comment -- Too many foreign names? Ever look at the New York City phone book?

The Beginning

It wasn't going to be the usual manic Monday someone on the radio was singing about. It was going to be much worse.

Recipe

There's no separate recipe in this one. Simona cooks an eggplant pasta dish with a friend while discussing possible suspects. After the book was published I got two conflicting complaints: 1. All of a sudden it sounded like a cook book! 2. I want to cook that dish but you didn't give the exact proportions!

That's when I decided to put the recipe in the back from then on. At the time I hadn't heard of Virginia Rich and Diane Mott Davidson whose first book was published only a few months before mine.