On Days Like These — Christiane France

When burned-out mystery writer Mark Salvatore asks to borrow the old family home in the hills near Genoa, Italy, for some much needed R&R, he envisions a blissful summer enjoying the warm sun, hanging out with the villagers, eating homemade Italian food, and drinking the local wine.

After a frustrating trip via Paris and Nice, however, Mark finally arrives in Santi Fiori in the rain to find the house has been trashed. Chickens and ducks from a nearby farm have taken possession of the living room, and there's a naked man asleep under a pile of blankets in the bedroom.

Tony Wheeler is English and says he's in Italy on business. He also tells Mark that his car has been stolen, and he's waiting for his clothes to dry and the weather to clear before he can walk to the village to inform the police. For all Mark knows, Tony could be a drifter, a drunk, or just about anything. And just hours earlier, Mark heard news of a bank robbery where the thieves got away with the loot.

Immediately, Mark's creative processes go into high gear when it comes to the sexy stranger. Milan is less than a hundred miles north, and Santa Fiori is just off the main Milan-Genoa highway. What if Tony Wheeler is just an alias? What if he's one of the thieves, hiding out in the hills until the heat is off? And what will Mark do when his fierce attraction to the mystery man starts to get the best of him?

Genres: Gay / Contemporary / The Arts / Mystery / Detective