Just as Lucy Stark, employed by a writer named DV, begins to read her employer's latest manuscript, she receives word that he has died under suspicious circumstances and journeys to Italy to search for the rest of DV's manuscript and to uncover the truthabout his death. Part romance, part suspense, and wholly entertaining, "Italian Fever" tells the story of the awakening of Lucy Stark, an American pragmatist. Martin redefines the Gothic novel in this compelling tale of one woman's headlong tumble into mystery, art, and eros.