Lucia and the Diplomatic Incident

Elizabeth Mapp has returned to the small town of Tilling, England, as if from the wars—pale and wan and mysterious. Finally her friends drag the secret out of her in painstaking detail. A “small but adequate” legacy allowed Elizabeth to spend three weeks in Venice, Italy, and she has returned a heroine. During a dramatic ferry accident she rescued an Italian child, which earned her a stay in the hospital with double pneumonia and the eternal gratitude of the Italian government. Lucia, who reigned as Queen during Elizabeth’s absence, is not at all happy to see her social rival steal not only her own adopted country, but the social spotlight and the hearts of all Tilling. But oh ... all is not what it seems, and if anyone can get to the bottom of it, it is Lucia!“Lucia and the Diplomatic Incident,” previously published only in the Benson Society Magazine in 1997, will be to many a fresh new episode in the lives of the glorious characters created by E.F. Benson. Tom Holt has written two officially sanctioned books featuring Lucia and Mapp, Lucia in Wartime and Lucia Triumphant, both available from Coffeetown Press in trade paperback and eBook.