The Bishop's Bedroom

By: Piero Chiara

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Synopsis: A very brief murder mystery, first published in Italian in 1976, then republished in 2015 and now translated into English in 2019. Summer 1946. World War Two has just come to an end. A man in his thirties is sailing on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, hoping to put off the inevitable return to work. Dropping anchor in a small, fashionable port, he meets the enigmatic owner of a nearby villa who invites him home for dinner with his older wife and beautiful widowed sister-in-law. The sailor is intrigued by the elegant mansion, staffed with servants and imbued with mystery, and stays in a room previously occupied by a now deceased bishop related to his host. The two men form an uneasy bond, recognizing in each other a shared taste for idling and erotic adventure. But tragedy puts an abrupt halt to their revels and shatters the tranquility of the villa. A sultry, stylish psychological thriller executed with supreme literary finesse. Piero Chiara (1913-1986) was an Italian writer. When the Fascists attempted to draft him into military service in 1944, he fled to Switzerland. The Disappearance of Signora Giulia was the first of his books to be translated into English.