Imagine inheriting a house and olive grove in Tuscany. What could possibly go wrong? What secrets long buried?

Set during the season when Etruscan archaeologists return to their excavations, The Whirling Girl explores the layered nature of love -- and of lies -- and the many-layered past of this seductive part of Italy.

“SEXY AND SOPHISTICATED, The Whirling Girl is like a fairtytale for grownups ... But it's the sly, wry heroine -- lovely and messy and flawed and true -- who provides the real enchantment, undermining our expectations and exceeding them at the same time."”
Annabel Lyon, author of The Sweet Girl and The Golden Mean.

"Fast-moving and full of Italian sun..."
Katherine Govier, author of The Ghost Brush

“A delicious read! I loved being in Italy for a few weeks with the beautifully flawed Clare and participating in her Etruscan comedy of manners."
Caroline Adderson author of The Sky is Falling


FOR LATEST NEWS, please go to the main menu, above at the right, where there's a link to reviews and interviews.

ON MY "DIGGINGS" PAGE, you will find background information about the Etruscans, the Amazon, and botanical art (all of which play a part in this novel), as well links to other sites that explore these subjects.

AT "DR. JOHNSON'S CORNER", you will come on a page where invited writers are sending in pieces that they have reluctantly edited out of their published work, a sort of self-selected Salon des Refusés.

AND AT "NETTLE SOUP" a maverick character in the novel has begun posting Tuscan recipes and telling a story of her own.