Marco Malvaldi – författare

Pellegrino Artusi, the great gastronome and amateur detective, is back. It is 1900 and Pellegrino's famed cookbook is in its fifth edition. Flushed from his fortune and success, our hero joins a weekend party at the Tuscan castle of the wealthy agricultural entrepreneur, Secondo Gazzolo. In this castle of winding corridors, secret passageways and clandestine meetings, Pellegrino finds a curious collection of guests, each with their own purpose for being there.But when one of the party is found dead in his locked bedroom, seemingly the victim of suffocation, it is up to Pellegrino and his old friend, the detective Ispettore Artistico, to solve what really happened, for the science of food is every bit as complex, rigorous and tantalising as the sublime art of investigation.A perfect "locked room mystery" that will have your brain and your tastebuds tickled.Translated from the Italian by Howard Curtis

October 1493, the height of the Renaissance. In a rapidly changing world, Milan flourishes under the leadership of Ludovico il Moro. Those wandering the courtyards of the city’s castle often encounter a man in his forties dressed in long pink robes, lost in his own thoughts. The man lives above his workshop, with his mother and a mischievous little boy whom he dotes on; he doesn’t eat meat, writes from right to left, and struggles to get paid by his employers. His name is Leonardo da Vinci. His fame extends beyond the Alps, to the French court of Charles VIII, whose envoys have been tasked with a secret mission that concerns Leonardo himself, and his most daring designs. When a man is found dead in the Castle’s courtyard, il Moro turns to Da Vinci for help. Though the corpse shows no signs of violence, the death is highly suspicious: rumours of a plague or superstitious explanations need to be disproven quickly. Leonardo is in no position to refuse his master’s request to investigate.