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A violent explosion during the inauguration party of Villa Brandi, an eighteenth-century villa restored thanks to the financial contribution from a well-known international football coach, causes four people to lose their life with a fifth seriously injured. Caterina Ruggeri, head of the local Homicide Division, who is present at the party with her partner and has escaped unhurt from the attack, will immediately take the reins of the investigation. Her work however is misled by obscure characters linked on one hand to the local Freemasonry and on the other to the Secret Services. Our detective will have to overcome many obstacles to arrive at the truth, which has its roots in the mists of time.
Police Commissioner Caterina Ruggeri is a sharp, smart and courageous woman. She is the mother of a beautiful little girl named Aurora and loves to spend the evenings in the company of Stefano, her constant companion. But under this façade of an ordinary woman hides an enterprising and adventurous heroine, always ready to take on new investigations. Like the one that sees her involved in a bombing attack during the inauguration party of Villa Brandi, an eighteenth-century residence in the Marche region purchased by a famous international football coach. It seems that the attack was masterfully carried out by a nameless and faceless enemy, and is the beginning of a new adventure, which will drag the unstoppable commissioner into an endless enigma, which has its roots even in the ancient Masonic Lodges. There will be many red herrings on the part of unsavory individuals linked to government secret services.
| Stefano Vignaroli, born in 1959, Veterinary Surgeon, is married and the father of two children. He has always worked in the Province of Ancona in the field of small animals. In addition to dogs, he is passionate about music, especially jazz, and in his youth played the alto sax in various small orchestras, improvised and not, and in his city's band. As a veterinarian employed by the local Health Authority, he has often found himself collaborating with the Police and Carabinieri in investigations and operations concerning illicit trafficking of animals or episodes of mistreatment. The collaboration and close contact with the Canine Units of the State Police has been essential in drawing up the profile of the protagonist of his novels, Commissioner Caterina Ruggeri, who began her career as Head of the Canine Field Office. This is how the series of novels dedicated to the Commissioner in the Marche region was born: "Delitti Esoterici" (Altromondo publisher – Padua), "I Misteri di Villa Brandi" (MJM publishing house – Meda) and "Il Diario di uno Psicopatico" (self-published on the Amazon platform). Founding member of the Euterpe Cultural Association, based in Jesi, which organizes cultural events and literary and poetic competitions at both local and national level, he was part of the judging panel of the competition for short stories "Racconti in viaggio", with the final day held in Cingoli (Macerata) in October 2016. He was a speaker at the conference on the History of Jesi, held in November 2016 at the Municipal Library "La Fornace" in Maiolati Spontini (Ancona), with a report entitled "The Plunder of Jesi – Political motivations and historical context". Once the trilogy of Commissioner Caterina Ruggeri was completed, and considering his passion for history, especially local history, he decided to devote himself to the historical novel. Taking inspiration from several architectural elements of the city of Jesi and from facts that really took place in history (see the Plunder of Jesi), the novel "The Shadow of the Bell Tower" was born. It can be considered the first of a series dedicated to a sixteenth-century typographer, Bernardino Manuzi, and to a young scholar of our times, Lucia Balleani, who, as she discovers and archives ancient texts, takes us with her to relive dark events of the past. |
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