"Mourning the loss of his wife, Rita, former NYPD homicide detective Nico Doyle moves to her hometown of Gravigna in the wine-soaked region of Chianti. Half-Italian and half-Irish, Nico finds himself able to get by in the region with the help of Rita's relatives, but he still feels alone and out of place. He isn't sure if it's peace he's seeking, but it isn't what he finds. Early one morning, he hears a gunshot near his cabin and walks out to discover a dead body in the woods, flashily dressed in gold tennis shoes. A small white dog at the scene won't leave Nico alone, so he lies to the police and claims to be its owner. Salvatore Perillo, the local maresciallo, enlists Nico's help with the murder case. It turns out more than one person in this idyllic corner of Italy knew the victim, and with a very small pool of suspects, including his own in-laws, Nico must dig up Gravigna's every last painful secret to get to the truth." -- from book jacket.