An old family secret leads from the streets of Sydney to Italy’s sun-drenched Neapolitan coast, in this immersive historical mystery from #1 international bestselling author Tara Moss

Pacific Ocean, 1907. A girl embarks on a journey to begin a new life far from home.

Naples, 1943. A woman shelters underground from a wartime air raid, praying her husband will return home.

Sydney, 1948. Billie Walker, returned from a stint as a wartime investigative journalist, uncovers a dusty box in her father’s old office whose contents—correspondence with a woman on the other side of the world—just might explain how they all are connected.

Plunged into a perilous search that will take her onto the first postwar luxury passenger ship to sail across the ocean to Italy, Billie finds herself up against a dangerous adversary—someone with a mysterious grudge against her family—as she races to uncover the secrets her father left behind. And as the trail leads her towards two women whose histories may be entwined with her own, she realizes that her father’s Italian secret just might upend everything she thought she knew.

"The heroine of this period detective series has glamour and gumption... If you devoured all of Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher murder mysteries, you’ll probably have fun following Moss’ gutsy and likeable female detective through noir-like plots and an immersive historical setting." —Sydney Morning Herald

"Australian PI Billie Walker makes game-changing family discoveries in the entertaining third installment of this historical mystery series... Moss manages to keep her copious plot threads from getting tangled, and she supplements the action with sumptuous period fashion and simmering romance... Fans won't be disappointed." —Publishers Weekly

"Moss' intrepid heroine is a good choice for fans of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs." —Booklist

“Another rip-roaring novel featuring one of my favorite detectives, Ms. Billie Walker. Moss’s latest is both a tale of international intrigue and an intimate family drama, racing from the cosmopolitan city of Sydney to the war-torn shores of Naples. The mystery at its core is a doozy, the tension sublime. An unforgettable read.” —Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Stolen Queen

“A richly layered, page-turning post-war mystery that explores, with depth and heart, how long-held secrets shape family and identity.” —Susan Meissner, USA Today bestselling author of A Map to Paradise

“A fearless young woman sets out on a quest in this tense but heartwarming tale of family, love and honor spanning the globe from Naples to Sydney.” —Rhys Bowen, New York Times bestselling author of the Royal Spyness series

“Billie Walker is enchanting, bringing style, verve and an unerring sense of justice to a post-war world full of grittiness, luxury, and danger. As her investigation leads her from present-day Sydney into a pre-war Italian past, the professional becomes achingly personal. At times tough, at other times deeply tender, armed with her trademark tilt hat and Fighting Red lipstick, she captured my heart.” —Frances Liardet, New York Times bestselling author of We Must Be Brave and Think of Me

“Billie Walker is a heroine for the ages, and in The Italian Secret she is as sharp, alluring, and feisty as ever. Moss seamlessly weaves setting and action into a mystery that is at once intimate and sweeping as Billie travels from the streets of Sydney to the sparkling Italian coast in search of truth and justice. A pleasure from start to finish.” —Elizabeth DeLozier, author of Eleanore of Avignon

Tara Moss is an internationally bestselling author, human rights activist, documentary and podcast host, and model. Her crime novels have been published in nineteen countries and thirteen languages, and her memoir, The Fictional Woman, was a #1 international bestseller. Her most recent novel is the The War Widow, which was also an international bestseller and is the first book in the Billie Walker series. Tara is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has received the Edna Ryan Award for significant contributions to feminist debate and for speaking out on behalf of women and children. In 2017, Tara Moss was recognized as one of the Global Top 50 Diversity Figures in Public Life. In 2021, she reported, wrote, and hosted the Audible Original true crime podcast The Man in the Balaclava. Moss lives in Vancouver with her family. View titles by Tara Moss