Bari, early August. While Lolita Lobosco is trying to enjoy her vacation, in the shed on the Terrarossa farmstead a body turns up: that of Suni Digioia, a young businesswoman, environmentalist, and activist for the cause of farmworkers’ rights. On the door to the shed, in bright red letters, the words, “Come in! I’ve hanged myself” are scrawled. It certainly looks like a suicide, but Inspector Lobosco isn’t buying it, after interrupting her holiday to look into the death. When the autopsy confirms that the young woman was strangled, the victim’s private life is gone over with a fine-toothed comb: she was too attractive, too free-spirited and independent not to arouse envy and gossip. Lolita, however, doesn’t stop at the rumors and plunges into the murky waters of the deplorable working conditions of the farmhands to bring the truth to the surface.

Gabriella Genisi has written numerous novels and created the character of Lolita Lobosco, protagonist of ten novels published by Sonzogno that have generated a TV series directed by Luca Miniero and starring Luisa Ranieri. The first eight are: La circonferenza delle arance (2010), Giallo ciliegia (2011), Uva noir (2012), Gioco pericoloso (2014), Spaghetti all’Assassina (2015), Mare nero (2016), Dopo tanta nebbia (2017), and I quattro cantoni (2020). This year Genisi has turned out two more Lolita Lobosco novels: Terrarossa, and Lo scammaro avvelenato e altre ricette.  Another of Genisi’s mainstays is the woman carabiniere from Italy’s Salento region, Chicca Lopez, who first appeared in the 2019 novel Pizzica amara, published by Nero Rizzoli and optioned by Fabula Pictures. In 2021, she published the second installment of that series: La regola di Santa Croce.