Murder at the Monastery

In the Tuscan monastery of Celle, Brother Matteo enters St. Francis’s former cell to discover a body wearing a monk’s cloak hunched over a prayer stand with a knife in his back. In London, Howard Fitzjohn, a retired banker is almost murdered on the steps of the Atheneum club by a poisoned dart. He flees the country, seeking refuge in Celle. The events, are part of complicated yarn of international intrigue, double-crossing, clever sleuthing by English and Italian detectives, a reporter’s dogged pursuit of the truth, a hitman with second thoughts about his profession, a treasury official playing both sides of the conflict, and a would-be victim’s quest for redemption.The killing at Celle and attempted murder in London prompt cooperation between Inspectors Rudi Khan and Detective Sergeant Peter Leslie of the Cambridge Constabulary, Inspector Harry Finkel of the Met, and their Italian colleagues in Arezzo and Rome. Inspector Khan is a Cambridge-educated, food and music-loving, first-generation South Asian. Other principal characters include Rhianna Johnson, investigative reporter for the Cambridge News and inamorata of Inspector Khan; the Fitzjohn family; English ex-pats in Rome, pro- and anti-Putin Russian oligarchs; MI 5 and treasury officials, and three hitmen, one English and two Italian.The plot revolves around efforts to kill and protect ex-banker Howard Fitzjohn, who is desperately trying to stay one step ahead of his would-be killers. Fitzjohn is helped by a protector, a hitman hired by an oligarch with a strong interest in protecting him, and also by friends in Rome, where he seeks refuge after fleeing Cortona. Fitzjohn later flees to Elba, hides out aboard a superyacht anchored in Livorno, and is finally hustled off by his hitman protector to the Alpine resort town of Campitello. The first hitman hunting for Fitzjohn is Russian and is the corpse discovered in St. Francis’ cell. His successor, hired by the same, powerful, Russian, is more skilful and experienced. He tracks Fitzjohn down and comes close to killing him in Livorno and Campitello. A game of cat-and-mouse develops between Howard’s protector and this hitman. The two men finally confront each other -- and Howard Fitzjohn -- on a hiking trail in the Dolomites. The outcome of this encounter is entirely unanticipated by all concerned and effectively resolves the Italian component of the tale.Events in England at the outset are attributable to a threatened oligarch and his fearful victim. Subsequently they involve further scheming by this oligarch, his solicitor and hired killer, and opposing them, Cambridge and London detectives and Rhianna Johnson and her Treasury collaborator. Inspectors Khan and Leslie began to connect dots, and with the help of London colleagues and MI5, expose a scheme of illegal shipments of proscribed surveillance technology to Russia. The paths of police and villains cross in a series of exciting confrontations that build toward a finale involving most of the major English characters.The novel ends with a dead hitman, another one behind bars, a third who gives up his profession, and a fourth who successfully slips away. A now liberated Howard Fitzjohn returns to England and is reunited with his mother and resurfaced sister. The police arrest the Russian oligarch behind Fitzjohn’s attempted murder, the owners of the company manufacturing the surveillance equipment and illegally siphoning some of it off for under the table payments, and the lawyer and treasury official who have helped all of them evade British law. The novel, intended to be entertaining, even gripping, is also a fact-based exposé of British complicity, until very recently, in Russian money laundering.