Ilaria Tuti Books In Order

Publication Order of Teresa Battaglia Books

Ilaria Tuti is an Italian crime and mystery fiction author from Gemona del Friuli in Udine. She went to college to study economics though she always had a creative streak and freelanced for an independent publisher that needed someone interested in painting. The award-winning author won the Gran Giallo Citta di Cattoloca prize for “The Pagan Child,” a short story she wrote in 2014. She published her debut novel “Flowers Over the Inferno” in 2019. She was born in a small village in northeastern Italy near the border with Slovenia and Austria. She still lives in the small village with her husband and Jasmine her daughter and two dogs. Since she was a child, she loved nature and spent a lot of time in the outdoors and this is evident in most of her novels. While she has become an award-winning novelist with the publication of her debut novel, she still works a day job as a procurement officer for a private company. When she is not writing her novels she loves to cook, read, paint, and also dabble in photography.

Ilaria always loved reading and growing up and even now she reads all manner of non-fiction and fiction works in all genres. When it comes to fiction works, she loves the works of Stephen King, Umberto Eco, and Primo Levi. She also reads the works of Camila Lackberg, Raymond Carver, Jo Nesbo, Michela Murgia, Gillian Flynn, and Joe R. Lansdale among many others. Tuti is also a very curious person and likes studying anthropology, psychology, and history. She loves profiling and criminal psychology as they offer insights into the inner workings of the human mind. According to the author, they make it possible to understand that the line between evil and good is not so clear cut. It tells us that there are monsters out there and that the criminals such as murderers who go on a killing spree are human beings that may have had terrible childhoods that messed them up. While she loved reading, her path towards authorship was not very smooth just like many of her contemporaries. She started painting as a child at an age when even holding a brush was a feat in itself. As a teenager, she got involved in photography, a hobby that soon became a passion. In adulthood, she got interested in storytelling, even though up to that time she was reading a lot. However, she was curious about the variety of ways to tell stories, how to write characters and settings that she had running in her mind.

Since she loved nature, it is a very critical component of her works as her settings are typically the mountains with their mysterious and frozen peaks that are surprisingly full of life. She loves her Italian homeland for its thousands of years of history, the powerful suggestions, and the arcane charm of pre-Christian traditions. She has a strong sense of belonging and the mountains from her homeland are a core element of the settings in her novels. Ilaria Tuti has said that while she was writing, she felt the need to convey the many emotions that nature aroused in her heart. This is the reason she writes sensuous novels in which she combines the breaths of animals in the night, lights and shadows, the heat of the burrows, the sensation of frost and heat on the skin, the primitive melody of the woods and colors. For the villains in her novels, she took inspiration from psychological research. The lead in her novels is a sixty-something-year-old police inspector named Teresa Battaglia who is also a diabetic. Tuti first thought the character in 2016, and slowly constructed the character with her proactive instincts, compassionate and slightly tetchy predilections.

In “Flowers Over the Inferno” by Ilaria Tuti, a body of a man is found in the forest naked with its eyes gouged out. The tranquil community is shocked by the murder but it turns out to be just one in a string of many gruesome attacks and murders in which the killers mutilate the bodies of their victims. In charge of the case is Teresa Battaglia, a police superintendent who has a knack for criminal profiling given years of experience. While she is one of the very few women in a field dominated by men, her knowledge, commanding presence, and effectiveness have earned her the respect and undying loyalty of her colleagues. However, even as she is used to working alone, there is a new city inspector she has to work with this time around. As they get to know each other, they quickly discover that what they are working on is a special case. It is not long before they find out about the dark secrets and history of the area, even as they get closer to one of the most vicious killers. Their skills and experience will be put to the ultimate test particularly for Teresa who also has to deal with illness and advancing age.

Ilaria Tuti’s “Sleeping Nymph” has Battaglia dealing with a bunch of cold cases that had been buried by the winds of time only to reappear with the forbidding absolute nature of an enigma. What the detective has in front of her is more complicated and darker than what she expected. However, evil has traced a path and all she has to do is analyze it methodically and follow the clues in the thick forest that has sprung up in the spring. Using the clues and the experience she has garnered over the years, Battaglia hopes to resolve the mystery of the cold cases. She is used to walking over hell since her life is a hell that devours and inhabits her very being. Little by little, she is getting consumed by her team and her job who would do anything for her. She cannot imagine losing her friends and colleagues thought this could be the last investigation she ever will be in charge of. Teresa is feeling that for the first time in her life, she is powerless to save herself let alone other people.

4 Responses to “Ilaria Tuti”

1. Giovanna: 3 years ago

   “The Sleeping Nymph” and “Painted in Blood” are the same book. I have no idea why the title was changed for the paperback.

   There is a third novel in the series, “Figlia della Cenere”, which has not yet been published in an English translation.

   Reply
   • Graeme: 3 years ago

     Thanks for the heads up on that – will update our listing. Can be tough at times keeping track of those alternate titles 🙂

     Cheers

     Reply
   • Suzanne: 2 years ago

     I’m trying to find out when, if ever, the 3rd novel in the Battaglia series will be published in English. I am almost done with the Sleeping Nymph and I am amazed by Ilaria’s stories! Thanks in advance.

     Reply
2. Cal Gillis: 3 years ago

   Hello,
   Has “The Pagan Child” by Ilaria Tuti been published in English?
   Thanks,
   Cal

   Reply