Dario Corbo, former crime reporter, now press officer for a wealthy arts foundation and right-hand man to its owner, Nora Beckford, has been, to all extents and purposes, dragged into some seriously dirty business this time. Someone is plotting against his captivating and glamorous boss, it would appear. A unique painting by Nora’s father, the late great sculptor Thomas Beckford, has turned up. A portrait, though he never painted portraits. It seems authentic, and she wants to get it back, out of love for her father, of course, and to snag it for her foundation. The problem is, the painting belongs to Maddalena Currè, the pretentious daughter of an art dealer in the Old Masters, scheming to infiltrate the foundation herself.

Giampaolo Simi’s literary debut in 1995, Viaggiatori nella tempesta, won the Lovecraft Award, while his 1996 novel Il buio sotto la candela earned him the Nino Savarese Award. After being shortlisted twice for the Scerbanenco Award, for his novels Direttissimi altrove (1999) and Tutto o nulla (2000), Simi’s Cosa resta di noi finally won the prize in 2015. His more recent titles include La ragazza sbagliata (2017, Chianti Literary Award 2018), Come una famiglia (2018, Bancarella Award Finalist), I giorni del giudizio (2019), and Senza dirci addio (2022). This year, as well as Il cliente di riguardo (fourth in the series featuring ex-reporter Dario Corbo), Simi has brought out Sarà assente l’autore. Nel 2020, he also co-wrote, con Piera Degli Esposti, L’estate di Piera.