Little Spark

In 1935, on Lake Maggiore Eva - Little Spark - pines for the glamour of Milan from which her mother abruptly moved them, and to escape to Hollywood to become a make-up artist. Instead she's obliged to help the local padre, slathering face paint on bodies pulled from the water. When an Englishman appears on the slab a sole, strange mourner lurks in the shadows.

Eva turns for help to her charismatic new acquaintance, the globetrotting, Agatha Christie fanatic, Amelia, and finds herself on her first and perilous trip across the lake she has hitherto feared which takes her into the dark heart of Mussolini's brutal regime.

An outstanding and much lauded debut novel.