The Marshal of the Borgo

By Joseph D'Agnese

In an ancient chapel in an ancient land, a crone screeches a warning:

"Beware the touch of Job--he's cursed!"

Matteo Scarpone is a modern-day Job. A man more sinned against than sinning. Once a cool-headed logician and the pride of Rome's carabinieri, he's devastated when disaster rocks his world.

He is a lost man. Beaten. Shaken. HAUNTED.

Shunned as an embarrassment, he is exiled to a tiny village in the sticks--a hamlet, a burg, a borgo.

But in this land of vineyards and olive groves, life is far from idyllic. Murder, witchcraft, and hate taint the soil once tread by the Etruscans.

Now the young captain must unravel a series of murders that pit him against a cynical evil and force him to use a power

--A GIFT

--A CURSE

that he has long denied.

* * *

The Marshal of the Borgo follows in the tradition of Italian mysteries by Magdalen Nabb, Andrea Camilleri, and Donna Leon--but with a twist.

Part whodunit, part ghost story, The Marshal of the Borgo is a very unusual paranormal mystery by a recent Derringer Award Winner.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joseph D'Agnese
• Release date: May 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781941410103

Joseph D'Agnese

Joseph D’Agnese is a journalist and author who has written for children and adults alike. He’s been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Discover, and other national publications. In a career spanning more than twenty years, his work has been honored with awards in three vastly different areas—science journalism, children’s literature, and mystery fiction. His science articles have twice appeared in the anthology Best American Science Writing. His children’s book, Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci, was an honoree for the Mathical Book Prize—the first-ever prize for math-themed children’s books. One of his crime stories won the 2015 Derringer Award for short mystery fiction. Another of his stories was selected by mega-bestselling author James Patterson for inclusion in the prestigious annual anthology, Best American Mystery Stories 2015. D’Agnese’s crime fiction has appeared in Shotgun Honey, Plots with Guns, Beat to a Pulp, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. D’Agnese lives in North Carolina with his wife, the New York Times bestselling author Denise Kiernan (The Girls of Atomic City).