Rust in Peace

Giovanna Ferrari (age 42), an unmarried, svelte, savvy, and sable-haired African-Sicilian American, runs Ferrari Repair with her grandfather Franco in the colorful town of Kingstown (population 3,721) in Gray County, Virginia, a county trapped between the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains and forgotten by time, interstate highways, cell phone companies, and high-speed Internet providers. While other Gray County girls were learning how to cook, smoke, drink, and gossip, Giovanna learned how to tune up engines, tear down transmissions, weld, rewire lamps, replace drive belts in dryers, and rebuild carburetors. Giovanna is also an expert markswoman and has to be because of the many critters (black bear, an elusive mountain lion, raccoons, and copperheads) that populate the mountains around her creek-side cabin home. She lives with Lovie, her Labrador-boxer wonder mutt who has ADHD (Angry Dog, Hyper Dog), her nearest neighbor a 2,800-pound buffalo named Big John who Giovanna speaks to in Sicilian to keep him calm.

After repairing and restoring a Farmall tractor that has been blissfully rusting at the Simmons Farm for over fifty years, Giovanna Ferrari finds Frederick "Tiny" Simmons' 6-8, 400-pound body in an easy chair in his farmhouse living room. When she learns that the coroner believes Tiny died of drowning, Giovanna spends the next two weeks clearing her name and sorting out a host of likely and unlikely suspects. She ultimately learns that the truly guilty are often innocent ... and the truly innocent are often very guilty.


Genre: Mystery