There's a very pleasant, unashamedly old-fashioned Hercule Poirot-like quality to this second book in a series about a Florentine detective, Carlo Arbati, who is also a prize-winning poet. Written by a Canadian professor, it lightly covers a buzzing nest of such human passions as lust, greed, and envy with a cultured patina of art and gracious living. Of course, that patina can easily disintegrate--especially when an American gangster bent on blackmail is killed by a falling bronze statue. Arbati, visiting the quiet town of Lucca to accept a poetry award, is as baffled as his local colleague by the events that follow. Also available in paperback is John Hill's first Arbati book, the award-winning The Last Castrato: A Mystery of FlorenceThe Last Castrato: A Mystery of Florence.