Books by David Wagner
Death in the Dolomites (Rick Montoya Italian Mysteries, 2)
by David Wagner
"Like Cold Tuscan Stone, the novel is light on its feet, with a protagonist who will strike readers as a good guy to hang around with."―Booklist
Perfect for readers of Donna Leon and Martin Walker, this thrilling addition to David Wagner's Italian mysteries immerses us in the sights, smells and tastes of Italy, this time in a picture-perfect Alpine town with a surprising dark side
Rick Montoya is looking forward to a break from his translation business in Rome―a week of skiing in the Italian Alps with old college buddy Flavio. But Rick's success helping the Italian police with a murder in Tuscany sends the Campiglio cops his way. An American banker working in Milano is missing. The man's sister, an attractive and spoiled divorcée, has no idea where he could be, nor do the locals who saw him on his way to the slopes. With the discovery of a body, Rick and Inspector Albani widen their list of suspects. Picturesque resort Campiglio harbors old rivalries, citizens on the make, and a cut-throat political campaign. Why would these local issues connect to the missing banker?
The investigation doesn't keep Rick and Flavio from enjoying perfect ski conditions in the Dolomites and glorious after-ski wines and bowls of fresh pasta. As for women―Rick has to wonder if the banker's sister is just hitting him up for information. The action heats up, testing laid-back Rick whose uncle, a Roman cop, keeps urging him to make the police his career.
A murder in the Alps makes short work of translator Rick Montoya's vacation, and he soon finds himself entrenched in the investigation. But there's more to this picturesque community than meets the eye, and it'll take a thrilling chase to solve the case before anyone else gets hurt.
Other books in the Rick Montoya Italian Mysteries:
Cold Tuscan Stone
Death in the Dolomites
Murder Most Unfortunate
Return to Umbria
A Funeral in Mantova
Copies
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Cold Tuscan Stone (Rick Montoya Italian Mysteries, 1)
by David Wagner
The first Tuscan book in David P. Wagner's Italian mysteries introduces us to Rick Montoya, an American translator who agrees to help catch art smugglers―and soon finds himself in over his head.
"Perfect for readers who enjoy a complex puzzle, a bit of humor, and a fairly gentle procedural. Don't miss this one."―Library Journal, STARRED review
When Rick Montoya moves to Italy to work as a translator, he doesn't expect to get involved in an investigation. But with one favor spiraling out of control, he soon finds himself fighting for his life.
Rick Montoya has moved from New Mexico to Rome, embracing the life of a translator. He's settling in to la dolce vita when a school friend who is now senior in the Italian Art Squad recruits Rick for an unofficial undercover role. Armed with a list of galleries, suspects, and an expense account, Rick arrives in Tuscany posing as a buyer for a gallery, ready to spend his days sipping wine and examining Roman artifacts to flush out burial urn traffickers.
But before sunset on Rick's first day in Volterra, a gallery employee dies in a brutal fall from a high cliff.
The local Commissario and his team consider Rick an amateur, and worse, a foreigner. And now they suspect him in the dead man's murder. While the Volterra squad pursues its leads, Rick continues to meeting his own suspects: a museum director, a top gallery owner, a low-profile import/export businessman and his enterprising color-coordinated assistant, and a sensuous heiress with a private art specialty and clientele.
As the murder mystery and the art trafficking heat up, has Rick's role made him the target of both cops and criminals?
This special first-in-series edition includes an introduction by the author, discussion guide, author interview, and excerpt from the second book in the series.
Praise for Cold Tuscan Stone:
"This is a wonderful start to a series, which should have immediate legs, and surely will thrill everyone who has lived in Italy, been to Italy, or would like to visit. As a boy I lived in both Firenze and Napoli, and reading Wagner takes me back deeply and instantly."
―Joseph Heywood, author of The Woods Cop Mysteries, The Snowfly, and The Berkut
"If you are interested in Italian art and artifacts, Italian history and culture, Italian food and wine, or even just good storytelling, then Cold Tuscan Stone will be right up your cobblestone alleyway… Simply put, this exciting, intriguing, well-written mystery extends an offer no reader should refuse."
―Amanda Matetsky, author of The Paige Turner Mysteries
"The intriguing art milieu, mouthwatering cuisine, and the team of the ironic Conti and the bemused but agile Montoya are bound to attract fans."
―Publishers Weekly
Other books in the Rick Montoya Italian Mysteries:
Death in the Dolomites
Murder Most Unfortunate
Return to Umbria
A Funeral in Mantova
Roman Count Down
To Die In Tuscany
Copies
No copies available.
What's Love Got to Do With It?: A Critical Look at American Charity
by David Wagner
Now available in paperback, What's Love Got to Do with It? is an insightful debunking of the way charitable giving disguises American neglect of the public welfare. Award-winning Professor of Social Work and Sociology David Wagner points out that while the United States prides itself on being one of the most generous nations, it provides its citizens with the lowest public benefits of any Western society and has rates of poverty and inequality among the highest in the industrialized world. These two facts, Wagner argues, are not unrelated: independent philanthropy actually provides a cover for the harshness of America's free-market capitalism.In a book that Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, says raises sobering questions for all of us who want to live in a just society, Wagner offers a provocative contribution to our thinking on philanthropy and social welfare.
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Radical Hollywood: The Untold Story Behind America's Favorite Movies
Radical Hollywood is the first comprehensive history of the Hollywood Left. From the dawn of sound movies to the early 1950s, Paul Buhle and Dave Wagner trace the political and personal lives of the screenwriters, actors, directors, and producers on the Left and the often decisive impact of their work upon American film's Golden Age.
Full of rich anecdotes, biographical detail, and explorations of movies well known, unjustly forgotten, and delightfully bizarre, the book is "an intelligent, well argued and absorbing examination of how politics and art can make startling and often strange bedfellows" (Publishers Weekly). Featuring an insert of rare film stills, Radical Hollywood relates the story behind the story of films in such genres as crime, women's films, family cinema, war, animation, and, particularly, film noir.
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Musichound Classical: The Essential Album Guide
by David Wagner
With its entertaining yet authoritative voice and a personality that treats classical pieces like any other form of popular music, "MusicHound Classical" offers readers an easy way to sort out the best combination of composer, work, and orchestra to match their listening needs. Includes a CD sampler. 100 photos.
Copies
No copies available.