What: Guido Dortello is in prison for the murder of his half-brother Achille, 17 years old, found dead in an old carriage after a séance. Guido has always maintained his innocence, but now even his father Taddeo has stopped supporting him.

When: The carriage killing was fifteen years ago. Now it’s summer’s end, when the beach may be a memory but the heat still inflames bubbling ghosts.

Where: Ponte Oliveto, a village in the hills of Piacenza straight out of a dark fairytale. Smiles, colourful houses, superstitious rituals and an idyll too perfect to be real.

Who: Fortuna Fatali as usual, thirty-five years old, detective du jour. She’s got a growing career and TV appearances, but an imposter syndrome that won’t go away and a trainwreck of a love life.

Geremia (her boyfriend?) asks her to investigate: Guido was his friend, and maybe the case was closed too quickly. And so, with her Aunt Caterina as her bumbling assistant, an ever more unruly extended family and her own jumbled feelings, Fortuna departs for Ponte Oliveto – a village that seems to follow a logic all its own, between missing witness testimony, anonymous notes, old grudges and new leads – to understand if Guido is really a killer or if, for fifteen years, everyone has had the wrong story.

About Valentina Barzago

Born in 1992, She earned her law degree in Milan and specialized in audiovisual series at the Scuola Holden. Her final project Acerbe, which she cocreated, was produced by Will Media. She has written various podcasts and works with the production company Stand By Me, where she has developed documentaries, including true crime. Also in the television industry, she was part of FarWest’s investigative team, where she worked on crime news and the darker sides of contemporary society. Currently she is a storyline screenwriter for Il Paradiso delle Signore.