The Villa

A double narrative, one in the present day, the other in 1974, both set in Villa Aestas on the outskirts of Orvieto, Italy. Emily, a 30-something writer of cozy mysteries, narrates the present. She’s going through a tough time: a messy divorce, writer’s block, and recovery from an awful, but undiagnosed, illness. So when Chess, her best friend since childhood, invites her to come along to the Italian villa she’s rented for six weeks, it’s a no brainer. Chess has become rich as a bestselling author of wellness/relationship books geared toward women and can easily afford an Italian villa fantasy. Villa Aestas is indeed charming, but it also has a dubious reputation, and Emily can’t help but investigate its past. It turns out that a famous rock star spent a summer there with several friends, a stay that ended in the murder of one of the men in the group. The two women in their midst fared far better; one went on to publish a horror novel that ended up a classic, while the other released a best selling album. Emily begins to recreate the narrative of that summer—through the novel, song lyrics, and documents she discovers in the villa—and becomes so obsessed that she begins a book about the summer of 1974. Chess meanwhile develops her own fascination with the murder, urging Emily to let her coauthor the book. As sinister details from the past emerge, equally disturbing revelations about the present come to light, and the two narratives begin to overlap. For fans of Lucy Foley.