Violin-Maker's Secret (Easy English)

An interesting collection of 25 short stories with an Italian flavour, a number of them are actually set in Italy. The stories include several entertaining mysteries brilliantly investigated and solved by intrepid Lt. Vespucci based in New York. In another, an Italo-American travels from Dallas, Texas to Palermo, Sicily, looking for his origins, a big surprise is waiting for him. A Dog Named Kim, and Meeting Claudia Cardinale, are true stories; Violin-Maker's Secret, and An Excursion in the Alps, are based on true stories. Sometimes characters in one story reappear in another as in the case of The Runners, and The Labyrinth where father and son go to explore a real life labyrinth in the Parma province of Italy, and then go to visit a castle by the name of Fontanellato, nearby, both the labyrinth and castle are accurately described, narration is of the 'thriller' style ending with a totally unexpected surprise. Often fact and fiction mix offering interesting, factual information together with a fascinating story as in the case of, Meeting Woody Allen. Two stories, An Excursion in the Alps, and Homicide at a Film Festival are set in Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. There is a lot of romance in, An Encounter, partly taking place in Como, where the author is based, and partly in the nearby Swiss town of Lugano. A Christmas Story narrates a warm story in multi-cultural London. The Reunion tells the story of eight successful university graduates from UK meeting in a hotel in Rome, they went to the same school in UK and decide to have a reunion 20 years after leaving school, at the end of the meeting their lives will never be the same again. In the last story, Adapting to a New Country, the English teacher Lisa we first meet in, A Christmas Story, goes to the hotel in Rome where The Reunion story is taking place, like her a number of characters from other stories will also converge on this luxury hotel in Rome but I'll say no more...