1936 Mussolini's Fascist State has Sicily in its grip, even the Mafia are subdued. Scott Bradford arrives on Sicily in search of the enigmatic Antonina Rashleigh, who he has had a brief affair with in Devon then she vanished. From her brother Dick he learns the answer to the riddle of Antonina must lie on Sicily. On the ferry from Naples to Palermo he is befriended by a young priest Carlo Miller. Both men are drawn into a web of murder and mystery that surrounds the Rashleighs, a British family, who have made a fortune from Sicily's rich earth in the Marsala Wine trade. But now the Fascicts want the British out. Ben, patriarch of the Rashleighs, will not leave, his stubborn stand results in death stalking the family, a heavy price to pay, but why? Praise for Mark Simmons work The Serpent and the Cross A Stylishly pacy novel -Western Morning News Agent Cicero Simmons book is an excellent treatment of the Cicero affair Military History Monthly.