Morire ti fa bella

English sample available

Fortunata puts make-up on dead people in her father’s funeral parlour, but dreams of being a pastry chef and finding love, as well as a life far away from death. And yet when the dead descendant of a dynasty of jewellers ends up on her table, her experienced eye tells her that this isn’t an ordinary accident but murder.

Fortunata had other plans for her life, but because of family tradition has become a mortuary make-up artist for the funeral parlour managed by her father, whom she affectionately calls “Mr Death”. She deals with other people’s grief by day, and, by night, takes refuge in Mario’s workshop. Mario is an old pastry chef who teaches her the secrets of his art.

However, Fortunata is unable to keep away from death for long. Indeed, it is death that cannot stay away from her. The descendant of a dynasty of jewellers falls down the stairs of a Venetian palazzo. Was it an accident? Or suicide? The policer shelve the case, but when the body lands on Fortunata’s table, a detail no one else would have noticed makes her suspect murder. Despite herself, she gets involved in the case, even though the most painful injuries she has to sustain aren’t those inflicted by death, but by love.