Fictitious sleuth hunts truffles just as easily as she hunts clues

Delaware native Tess Rafferty was vacationing on the Italian island of Ischia when she remarked to her husband that the people around them seemed straight out of an Agatha Christie novel.

“Dying to Go” is the
latest of four Tess Rafferty books to feature crime solver Kat Kelly.

“I thought someone should write that,” she said. “And then I thought that someone should be me.”

And that was the birth of Rafferty’s stylish, high-living sleuth Kat Kelly, who has previously appeared in “Under the Tuscan Gun,” “The Red, the Fed and the Dead,” and “To Lie in the Sun.”

Tess Rafferty: Delaware native and Italophile.

This year Rafferty brings readers more Kat Kally exploits in “Dying to Go.” The book begins in classic Agatha Christie fashion with a group of friends enjoying a luxurious getaway in an Italian villa – until a sudden rainstorm traps the friends inside with an unknown killer among them. Naturally, everyone is a suspect.

Kelly is equally adept at swirling a glass of pinot grigio and examining a crime scene. When Rafferty writes her Kelly mysteries, she strikes a balance between detective fiction and tourism, whisking readers along to everyday places in Italian life – the splendid architecture, charming streets, eccentric characters and of course, the restaurants. (Who can sleuth on an empty stomach, really?)

Rafferty has worked as a TV writer for over a decade on popular comedy shows. But every vacation they could, she and her husband – writer/producer Chris McGuire – would escape to Italy. Growing up in an Italian-American family in Wilmington, Rafferty comes by her passion for Italy naturally. “The very first time I went I really felt, ‘These are my people.’ There’s something that feels like home for me; it’s very innate.”

All of Rafferty’s maternal great-grandparents immigrated from the country in the early part of the 20^th century, including Ciro Poppiti and Lydia Poppiti née Cicatelli, who came from Olevano sul Tusciano in Campania.

Blending her work with her heritage has become a passion for the writer in recent years. In 2022 she collaborated with Italian actress Gabriella Passion, and Academy Award winner Corinne Marrinan, to develop Giancarlo Berardi’s long-running Italian-language graphic novel “Giulia” for Endemol-Shine Italia. The trio is currently working to bring another popular book series to television, which will be set against the backdrop of Rome. IAH

Tess Rafferty’s Kat Kelly books are available
at fine booksellers and at amazon.com