Bearer of Bad News: A Novel
“Bearer of Bad News is Elisabeth Dini’s first novel and it’s a doozy. Well-written, with sharply drawn characters and a fascinating plot, . . .”
“Unaware that he had been photographed sucking face with the duplicitous Mr. Chippy, Julius at first denies everything.
“I cry and rage-scream and then forward him the photo. ‘Oh ****,’ Julian says and then he hangs up on me. When I try to call back it goes straight to voicemail.
“‘Get a good night's sleep and then drive straight to Reno tomorrow morning,’ Adam urges. ‘How many hair appointments would you have to cancel to spend the week with me?’”
“’Only two,” I sobbed, crying harder. ‘My clients don't love me either.’”
Lucy Rey is having a very bad week. Besides finding out her fiancé—the one who convinced her to move to Las Vegas and rent, in her name, an expensive apartment and then decamped to Hollywood in order to find work as an actor—is cheating on her, her business is in a slump, and she hates Vegas. Oh, and the diamond engagement ring Julian gave her is really cubic zirconia.
And so when she sees an advertisement for an expense paid job with a $25,000 success fee just to find a missing sister and deliver unspecified bad news, what does she have to lose? Her flight to Europe is all paid, there’s a generous per diem, and Ortisei, the village in the Italian Dolomites where she is sent, is totally charming.
But being a “Bearer of Bad News,” which is the title of Lucy’s new job, is not a slam dunk. First of all, Taffy, the woman who hired her, is totally flaky, the assignment murky, and, Lucy soon discovers, the village, though quaint and pretty has an unsavory past including Nazis and stolen jewels.
Soon, the assignment gets even stranger as it becomes apparent that Taffy (real name Countess Tabitha Georgiana Wellington Ernst) crafted the ad to attract and hire Lucy, who is the estranged granddaughter of a once very famous movie actress.
It doesn’t go smoothly. Chased by an influencer whose photo shoot she accidentally interrupted, Lucy is hidden by a charming hotel clerk in rooms above the oldest tavern in town, which is also where much of the action happened in the past. For being hidden away, Lucy’s lodgings get a lot of action—including a handsome man she met on the tram and Coco, the missing sister, a human rights attorney who might have been fired under suspicious circumstances. In other words, who do you trust?
The book cuts between modern day Ortisei and Nazi Germany, interspersed with missives from the Department of Lost Things, a privately funded department populated by agents of governmental entities throughout the world. It’s all somewhat hazy, just like everything Lucy encounters in her new job. The department is on the hunt for the diamonds to return them to their rightful owner. But who is the agent? Taffy also wants the diamonds as well. Her marriage and her high-living lifestyle depend upon it.
Bearer of Bad News is Elisabeth Dini’s first novel and it’s a doozy. Well-written, with sharply drawn characters and a fascinating plot, it’s all told in a witty and fast-moving manner. Here’s hoping she’s already working on a second.