As Nonna Maria’s longtime pal and sometimes colleague, Captain Murino, who is in charge of the local carabinieri, never wanted to see harm brought to the doorstep of everyone’s favorite amateur sleuth. But when you live a long life, you’re bound to make a few enemies. And when those enemies come calling, you have to rely on friends. Faced with an assassin seeking revenge for a decades-old grudge, Captain Murino has no choice but to turn to Maria, who must use all her neighborly resources, clever faculties and web of connections to save him from his perilous predicament. On the other side of the island, a second mystery begins to unfold at the deathbed of another of Maria’s old friends, as he hands his granddaughter a yellowed map and tells her of a treasure to be found in one of Ischia’s secret caverns. However, there are traps and pitfalls.

Two crimes have rocked the sun-drenched island of Ischia. And once again, the island’s denizens have called upon Nonna Maria, the espresso-brewing, sage-counsel-giving sleuth. A wealthy woman alleges that a valuable necklace has been stolen from her hotel room, and she blames Nonna Maria’s goddaughter as the most likely suspect. Nearby, the body of a woman is found on a curved road near the borough of Barano. The woman is not known to anyone on the island. The one potential suspect is a young friend of Nonna Maria’s who drove by the area that very night and thinks he might have hit something --- perhaps the woman in question. It’s up to Nonna Maria to string together the clues and solve these two mysteries before death comes to Ischia again.

Nonna Maria has lived on Ischia, an island in the Gulf of Naples, her entire life. Everyone knows her, and she knows everyone’s business. When a recently engaged woman confesses that she’s afraid her fiancé, a stranger to Ischia with a murky past, might not be who he seems, Nonna Maria helps her disappear so she can investigate the true nature of her betrothed. The stranger has also raised the suspicions of Captain Murino of the carabinieri, but he’s occupied investigating the death of a tour boat captain who drowned in the wee hours of the morning. Captain Murino believes it was an accident, but Nonna Maria knows the man was a born sailor and too good a swimmer to drown, no matter how much wine he might have drunk.

Standing with his children near his grandmother’s grave on a recent trip to Ischia, an island off the coast of Naples, Lorenzo Carcaterra realized how much of his life has been shaped by the women who taught him how to look for joy and overcome sorrow. This book is his tribute to them. Nonna Maria, his grandmother, gave him his first taste of a loving home during the summers he spent with her as a teenager on Ischia. His mother, Raffaela, dealt with daily hardships: a loveless and abusive marriage, the burden of debt and a life of dread. The third woman is his wife, Susan, a gifted editor and his professional champion. Their marriage lasted three decades before her death from lung cancer in 2013.

Detective Eddie Kenwood is a dirty cop. He has the highest signed-confession rate in the NYPD and a distinguished career built on putting men behind bars --- whether they’re guilty or not doesn’t matter much to him. When Tank Rizzo’s partner, Pearl, tells him about an old family friend Kenwood put in jail for a murder he didn’t commit, Tank and Pearl vow to take Kenwood down. Also in need of a takedown: the money-laundering accounting firm where Tank’s brother used to work --- before he mysteriously died, leaving Tank the sole guardian of his nephew, Chris. Chris smells a rat and enlists Tank’s help to bring the men who had his father killed to justice.

As one of the NYPD’s most trusted “tin badges” --- retired detectives brought in to solve cases that are beyond the reach of the everyday force --- Tank Rizzo has faced off against some of the city’s toughest criminals without breaking a sweat. To tackle a case involving a dangerous kingpin known as Gonzo, Tank turns to his best friend and ex-partner, Pearl; a former mobster living out a seemingly quiet retirement as the owner of Tank’s favorite Italian restaurant; and a team of expert misfits he would trust with his life. But Gonzo will stop at nothing to defend the empire he's built, and he won't hesitate to make it personal.

When the world's most powerful mob boss loses his wife and daughters in a terrorist attack funded by one of his rivals, he resolves to turn the tables. Rallying the heads of the globe's top criminal organizations, Vincent Marelli launches a war that may be his last. With the weight of the criminal world on his shoulders, he has only one desire in his heart: to know who ordered the hit that took out his girls.

When the world's most powerful mob boss loses his wife and daughters in a terrorist attack funded by one of his rivals, he resolves to turn the tables. Rallying the heads of the globe's top criminal organizations, Vincent Marelli launches a war that may be his last. With the weight of the criminal world on his shoulders, he has only one desire in his heart: to know who ordered the hit that took out his girls.