Beside Lake Como: Where there's Love there are Lies

'Beside Lake Como is a contemporary fiction with true-to-life characters that will draw you in.'

An affair emerges that gradually unravels the life of wealthy Italian Lucrezia Bonucci, and a much younger hard up English artist. Set in the scenic paradise called Lake Como, this is a disquieting work of fiction with an insight into the inequitable lives of a family of village bar owners. As the protagonists move on, an unlikely marriage between highly attractive Claudia, the bar owner's daughter and Rocco, an ex-boxer, courier driver and dessert maker who finds some valuable jewellery that was hidden below the lake waterline from the advancing Allies during WWII, puts everyone's emotions and trust to the test, especially when Claudia fakes her own kidnap.

The monumental mountains appear to rise out of the depths of the lake. Tiny villages huddle at the lakes edge, connected by narrow roads carved out of solid rock. At 6am the bells from the church start to peal as the sun begins to peep over the mountains. The light shifts and changes by the minute, striking the lush green mountaintops on the west side of the lake. Eventually, its beam reaches the water's edge, highlighting the pastel coloured shades of the painted buildings with their terracotta tiled roofs.