May the Wolf Die: A Novel

by Elizabeth Heider

Overview

For readers of Jane Harper, a gripping mystery set in Italy, following a female detective haunted by her family’s past and tasked with untangling the city’s organized crime and the modern U.S. military presence there.

Nikki Serafino is enjoying the sunset from her boat in her beloved port city of Naples, Italy, when she discovers the body of a man in the warm waters of the bay. An investigator working as the liaison between local police and American troops, Nikki is certainly no stranger to violence and organized crime, but this case grows complicated when the victim turns out to be a U.S. Navy captain stationed at the nearby military base—and the autopsy reveals foul play. As she delves into the case, another body is found and Nikki must face connections linking the murders to her own complicated history as a daughter of Naples. Smart and steeped in sun-soaked Italy, this propulsive mystery is the perfect summer binge read.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143138181
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/02/2024
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	59,229
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Elizabeth Heider lived in Italy for several years, working as a research analyst for the U.S. Navy. She’s currently a scientist at the European Space Agency, and her short fiction has earned recognition from the Santa Fe Writer Awards and the New Century Writer Awards.

Editorial Reviews

★ 06/17/2024

Former Navy analyst Heider delivers an intricate and impressive debut about the killing of two American sailors in Italy. Nikki Serafino, an investigator for U.S. military police, has a day of sailing in Naples with her friend and fellow officer, Valerio, interrupted twice: first to rescue a woman left to drown by her abusive boyfriend, and then by the discovery of an unidentified corpse in the water. Then an American sailor is found shot dead on the outskirts of the city, and forensics reveal that the corpse in the water was boiled alive. The ensuing investigation plunges Nikki, Valerio, and the Italian police into a matrix of betrayals and back-room deals between the U.S. Navy and the camorra, a network of organized crime clans in Naples. Heider deepens the central mystery by fleshing out her heroes’ family lives and complicated relationships to both Naples and the American military; Nikki, in particular, jumps off the page, with her struggles as a woman in law enforcement vividly highlighted. Toss in a pulse-pounding climax, and Heider has a promising potential series on her hands. Agent: Sharon Pelletier, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (July)

Publishers Weekly

An intriguing mystery, a smart central character to root for, gorgeous setting, and authentic detail. This tense and brooding debut is everything crime fiction should be.” –Dervla McTiernan, author of The Murder Rule and The Ruin

“Heider delivers an intricate and impressive debut…Nikki, in particular, jumps off the page, with her struggles as a woman in law enforcement vividly highlighted. Toss in a pulse-pounding climax, and Heider has a promising potential series on her hands.”
–Publisher's Weekly Starred Review

“The Neapolitan setting and the details of underwater investigation give Heider’s debut an offbeat and entertaining gloss…A lively procedural with a high-powered heroine and a setting that would be idyllic if not for those murders.”
–Kirkus Review

“May the Wolf Die…bowled me over with its descriptions of Naples — seedy, beautiful, baroque — and the trials and tribulations of its main character, Nikki Serafino.”
–New York Times Book Review

“May the Wolf Die is a brilliant thriller, cleverly crafted and unpredictable.”
–Criminal Element

“[An] energetic, labyrinthine police procedural. Heider invests her debut with a strong sense of place with complicated, believable characters and authentic details…Heider is off to an impressive start in her new series with May the Wolf Die.”
–South Florida Sun Sentinel

From the Publisher

2024-05-17
A brisk Italian investigator solves crimes, handles a tricky personal life, and navigates the elaborate criminal investigation bureaucracy of Naples.

The discovery of a dead body turns Nikki Serafino’s idyllic getaway on the Bay of Naples into a busman’s holiday, and not a pleasant one. Nikki works as a liaison between the U.S. military and the Italian police, investigating crimes involving U.S. service members. She and cop colleague Valerio are aboard her pride and joy, the Calypso, when a corpse gets tangled underneath. Shortly afterward, Nikki’s investigating an apparently minor car accident involving American naval commander Charles McAllister when she happens upon another corpse in a red Jeep on the side of the road. These seemingly straightforward crimes turn out to have surprising connections. The complications in Nikki’s professional life are matched by those in her personal life, as her ex, Tito, shadows her and threatens her new relationship with the hot Enzo. Her brothers, Adriano and Gianni, and her bubbly Aunt Izzy are also in the mix. The Neapolitan setting and the details of underwater investigation give Heider’s debut an offbeat and entertaining gloss. Immersing Nikki in the local culture, she presents a Naples as murderous as some American cities: “To be in Naples was to accept the danger.” But the torrent of disruptions on the criminal and personal fronts and the extra characters and layers of bureaucracy that Nikki’s job involves, however true to life, may well distract readers from the more compelling matters of plot and character development.

A lively procedural with a high-powered heroine and a setting that would be idyllic if not for those murders.

Kirkus Reviews