"Imagine a scene of rural serenity, a night scene." So begins the first chapter of Bradford Morrow's latest novel, Giovanni's Gift. However pastoral this start may seem, in a few short paragraphs, Morrow succeeds in shattering the peace as he sets up the central mystery of the an unknown trespasser conducts a campaign of terror against the inhabitants of a lonely farm somewhere in "the western mountains." Loud music blares in the middle of the night, phone lines are cut, an effigy hangs from an ash tree, a door is stolen--over the course of several months these and other random acts of harassment begin to wear on Henry and Edmé Fulton. Eventually, Edmé's nephew, Grant, arrives from Rome to help unravel the truth behind these increasingly disturbing events. Unfortunately, the mystery behind Giovanni's Gift begins to unravel for the reader long before the characters figure it out.