Dying on the Vine - Aaron Elkins

The patriarch of an Italian winery and his wife are found dead almost a year after they disappeared. The carabinieri declare it a murder-suicide, because the husband had suspicions his wife was cheating on him.

Gideon Oliver is a professor of forensic anthropology giving a seminar to law enforcement, and is given the chance to examine the body of the wife for an example. He concludes the police probably got it wrong, and things go from there.

Oliver does emphasize that much of what he points out isn't ironclad evidence. Unconscious people usually land on their feet when they fall from great heights, but not always. So a lot of the book is Gideon explaining things to his friends and to the carabinieri that got him the chance to inspect the deceased. The investigation is still officially closed for most of the book, but each thread teased unravels a few more.

Elkins spends a fair amount of time on different places Gideon and his friends go to eat, and what they eat. There's a whole paragraph at one point about how there's a particular dish made from lamb that Gideon hates because it reminds him of some lamb roast his Polish aunt made when he was a kid. I guess Gideon is there for vacation as well as teaching the seminar, so it makes sense to focus on the touristy stuff he does, but it lends a very casual air to the mystery. Something Gideon's doing between stuffing his face and visiting a museum of science.

The book is an easy read, moves along at a good clip, so you can get through it fast if you want to. No selection of the writing, because one of my dad's dogs pulled the book out of my suitcase and tore it to shreds over the weekend. If she was going to trash anything in there, that was the best option.