BREAKING FAITH

Hard-boozing Faith Zanetti isn’t going to let a dead-end story or a baby break her.

Still recovering from her adventures in Moscow (Vodka Neat, 2008), Faith is anything but satisfied with the latest assignment from her editor at London’s Chronicle—the anniversary of the Cairnbridge plane bombing. Faith is sure she’s not going to scoop all the other reporters who’ve covered the incident over the past 25 years, but she heads to Italy to meet her former boyfriend Eden and browse through the notes from his coverage of the story. She finds to her annoyance that her toddler son’s father has embraced the Italian lifestyle, throwing around “Ciao” at every opportunity. Unlike Eden, Faith doesn’t want to put down new roots; she just wants to finish what promises to be less investigative journalism than a commemorative piece. Then Eden introduces her to Phoebe and Walter Irving, both of whom knew Faith’s long-dead reporter father, Phoebe rather more intimately. Though Faith isn’t looking to catch up on old times, it’s hard to ignore her past when she’s becoming convinced her father is sending her warnings from beyond the grave. It turns out that Phoebe and Walter might be the key not only to the identity of the Reykjavik caller who originally warned of the Cairnbridge bombing, but to some unexpected secrets of Faith’s past.

The book is too charmed by its own protagonist to remind readers why she’s so charming.