An idyllic vacation villa is ruffled by elements from a more ruthless world. Claudio, an Argentine physician, is the life of the group, even giving tango lessons after the evening meal. Silvia, an American almost old enough to be his mother, develops a fast rapport with the charismatic Claudio, so much so that her husband Tony, the proprietor, suspects an unlikely attraction is in the making. But Claudio is on a mission. He has tracked the retired army officer responsible for the disappearance of his mother during Argentina's "dirty war" twenty years before. Col. Leone is surrounded by bodyguards in a remote Tuscan town. Claudio must get to him and make him confront his past. But there is more at stake. Those who orchestrated the disappearances do not want Leone ever to reveal what he knows. They send their own agents to hunt the hunter Claudio. Silvia and Tony are drawn into the cauldron. Revenge and redemption spin through a final tango as the showdown unfolds.
Jim Ciullo (www.JimCiullo.com ) is a member of Mystery Writers of America and of Sisters in Crime (national and New England). He lives in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts and spends a good deal of time with family in Vermont. In addition to writing, he works as a consultant to human service and education agencies.
In 1998, Jim took early retirement from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation, where he served twenty-one years in the development of a community-based system of services for persons with mental retardation and their families. During this period, he worked in several capacities, most notably as the Area Director for Berkshire County.
He received a B.A. from Boston College and a Masters in Education from the University of Massachusetts. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Venezuela from 1969 to 1971, an experience that inspired his novels ORINOCO and MARACAIBO. He also taught English as a Foreign Language in Madrid, Spain.
Jim has been involved in a number of community volunteer activities. He has traveled extensively in Latin America and in Europe, especially Italy, where he researched his novel A TANGO IN TUSCANY. He is fluent in Spanish, and can get along in Italian. Besides travel, his interests include sports and politics, both world and national.
