When a priceless Leonardo is stolen from the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, the Hungarian government tries to hush things up and the police show themselves to be completely clueless. Thank goodness for Milla Anderson! A gifted reporter for one of Budapest's daily newspapers, she picks up the trail in Palermo-and of course an international gang is soon hot on her heels. When a Hungarian detective is apparently liquidated and the oily Schoenberg-Belmonte begins insinuating his way into Mrs. Anderson's hotel, things start to look very dangerous indeed. This fast-paced crime story and lighthearted romantic comedy, set against a backdrop of Mediterranean scenery and fascist menace in Italy and Hungary between the wars, is Miklos Banffy at his best. Now published in English for the first time, translated by Thomas Sneddon.

Born in Transylvania in the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Miklos Banffy lived to witness both the zenith of that Empire and its fall. The short stories in this collection, from the tale of the idle young man dawdling pleasantly in Venice to the Romanian villager meditating revenge on his tormentor, draw on the author's experiences of life, love, sacrifice, betrayal and courage, and reveal, as a recurring leitmotif, an indomitable will to survive. The translator, Thomas Sneddon, lives in Budapest where he teaches translation at the Peter Pazmany University.