midnight in the piazza, by tiffany parks
mysteries abound in this race through rome…
Beatrice Archer may love history, and Rome may be chock full of it, but that doesn’t mean she wants to move there! Too bad Beatrice’s father, who taught her everything she knows about exploring the past, got a job as the head of the history department at the American Academy in Rome. So Beatrice has no choice but to get used to the idea.
In Rome, she explores her new city as much as she can in between Italian lessons, gelato runs, and embarrassing attempts to make friends with the locals, but it isn’t until she hears talk of a strange neighborhood legend that Beatrice perks up. A centuries-old unsolved mystery about the beautiful fountain outside her window? Sounds like fun!
Before Beatrice has a chance to explore, though, she sees a dark figure emerge from the shadows of the square in the middle of the night—and steal the famous turtle sculptures that give the fountain its name!
When no one believes her story, Beatrice knows that it’s up to her to solve the crime and restore the turtles to their rightful place. With the help of her new friend Marco, she navigates a world of unscrupulous ambassadors, tricky tutors, and international art thieves to unravel one of Roman history’s greatest dramas—before another priceless work of art disappears!
(From back cover)
backstory
When I had been living in Rome for less than a year, I met an extraordinary thirteen-year-old American girl named India, who lived on the top floor of a building in Piazza Mattei and had a view of the Turtle Fountain out her bedroom window. Although India was not the direct inspiration for Beatrice, with that acquaintance, the seed of a story was planted. It wasn't until several years later that I picked up a pen (or, rather, a laptop) and began to write this book. The idea came to me while I was browsing the shelves of the English section of my local bookstore. There were countless novels and memoirs about expats and their adventures living abroad—but the protagonists were all adults. Had no one ever thought to write an expat story from the point of view of a child? Apparently not. And so I set out to write one.
I had no idea where this story would lead. I only knew that my heroine would be a redhead named Beatrice, and that she would live in Piazza Mattei with a view of the Turtle Fountain out her bedroom window. As scenes turned into chapters, and chapters began to form a book, I realized I was writing a mystery. An art mystery. After many challenging years of writing, revising, (and revising and revising), querying, waiting, and revising again, Midnight in the Piazza was published by HarperCollins Children's in 2018.
Cover design by Jen Klonsky. Cover illustration by Becca Stadtlander.