Jethro Soutar

"1570: A street teems with activity in Renaissance Lisbon: boatmen unload passengers as jugglers entertain the crowd and vendors hawk their goods. The crowd is large, and more than half of it is Black. Most are enslaved African people performing an array of duties, but there are free Africans too, and somebody else: a Black knight astride a horse. Four hundred and fifty years later, novelist and journalist Joaquim Arena stands in a museum, transfixed...

"Alfonsina Strada (1891-1959) was known as the Pedal Queen. In 1924, she rode the prestigious Giro D'Italia race, the first and only woman in history to do so. She has become a symbol of struggle and resistance for women across the world. Her story began as a girl of ten who taught herself to ride a bike ..."--Back of book

"The decapitated body of a hotel resident is found. The eyes have been removed from the head, casually left on the floor of the room. The victim's eerie, frozen Mona Lisa smile seems to indicate that the murderer had been received as a friend. According to the police, the victim was stabbed in the heart and died before the decapitation. As the investigation continues, with few leads or clues worth pursuing, other hotel clients are found dead; all...