Daughter of Ashes

Tuti’s third mystery in the Teresa Battaglia series (following The Sleeping Nymph) finds police superintendent Teresa charged with using her keen instinct and psychological insight to uncover the secrets of the monstrous serial killer, Giacomo Mainardi, whom she put in prison 27 years earlier. Grappling with a recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis, which she is trying to keep under wraps, Teresa is ordered to interview Giacomo, who recently escaped but turned himself in again, claiming that prison is safer than the outside. Giacomo has information to share but will only speak with Teresa. He reveals that he is being targeted by a murderer while also providing shadowy details about his involvement in a high-profile killing. As Teresa struggles to piece together the clues, she is plunged into the past, revisiting details from the previous case and remembering the terror of living with her brutally abusive former husband. Narrator Christina Moore's expressive performance conveys the grim atmosphere while evocatively capturing the varying cadences and accents of the characters’ speech.