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More about As Silent as the Night
He can procure anything, except his heart’s deepest wish. She might hold the key, if she’s not discovered first.
Chicago, 1933?Lucia Critelli will do anything for her ailing grandfather, including stand in a breadline to have enough food to make him a St. Nicholas Day meal. When she catches the eye of a goon who threatens her grandfather, she discovers the end of Prohibition doesn’t mean the end of the mafia’s criminal activity.
Retired Marine Scout Giosue “Gio” Vella can find anything, especially if it helps a fellow Italian immigrant, so he has no doubt he can locate his neighbor’s granddaughter, who has gone missing from a local church. Keeping her safe is another matter. Especially when he chooses to hide out with his Marine buddy in Eagle, Wisconsin, the site of a barely-held truce among striking dairy farmers.
Will Christmas bring the miracle they all need or will Gio discover there are some things even he can’t find, particularly when he stumbles upon the most elusive gift of all: love.
2023 CROW National Excellence in Story Telling Award Winner
2023 FHLCW Reader's Choice Award Finalist
Read the Whole Series!
Book One: To Stand in the Breach
Book Two: A Strike to the Heart
Book Three: As Silent as the Night
A beautiful, gripping, and romantically suspenseful Christmas story you wouldn’t be able to put down if you tried. ~ Chautona Havig, author of The Stars of New Cheltenham
Sweet and suspenseful, As Silent as the Night takes readers on a twisty ride that will keep pages turning. Captivating characters, heartwarming families, and Christmas traditions aplenty check all the boxes for a fabulous holiday read. ~Beth Pugh, Selah Awards Finalist and author of the Pine Valley Holiday Series
Published by Hearth Spot Press
© 2022 Danielle Grandinetti
Read the Opening Scene
December 6, 1933 Chicago
Lucia Critelli lowered her head against the bitter wind that raced the cars rumbling down the city street. She’d been standing in the bread line since before first light, and now the rising sun had turned the black sky to a haunting shade of red. A forewarning? She hoped not. She desperately wanted to get a special treat for Nonno on this cold St. Nicholas Day.
Her grandfather had been ailing more than usual, what with their inability to properly heat their apartment. Lucia tried to find work where she could, but half the city was out of work, and jobs were incredibly difficult to come by. Especially for a woman, let alone an immigrant’s daughter. Lucia often spent her days in lines like this only to be turned away for not getting to the door before all the food or work had already been disseminated.
Not today. Today she’d bring bread home to Nonno. No matter what.
She raised her eyes to the spire of St. Mark, her destination, the sun gleaming on the cross that rose high above the sooty buildings surrounding it. The rumble of a truck interrupted her silent prayer. She recognized it as it passed her, and when it stopped at the front of the church, a warm, fluttery feeling filled her. Giosuè Vella was delivering supplies.
Most of the girls in their neighborhood had a crush on the gregarious Italian. Their mammas all tried to create a match with him, and their papas all approved. Yet Gio remained unmarried and seemingly happily so, which meant all the nonnas welcomed him to their table without hesitation, even if it seemed his own mother fed half the Italian community.
With what appeared to be effortless grace, Gio lifted a crate overflowing with fall vegetables from the bed of his truck. Neither tall nor short, his stocky frame seemed to easily carry any type of load, whether physical or emotional. Whenever anyone needed something, Gio was always the man people in their neighborhood went to for help. Somehow, Gio always knew how to find exactly what a person needed, whether the right word, a certain food, or a unique trinket. It made him greatly loved and admired.
And that was the problem. Everyone loved Gio Vella. It made it hard for Lucia to know whether her feelings toward the man were simply the hero worship of the masses or something more. Especially since Gio made her feel special, as special as he made every other person he met.
Stop this! Lucia tucked her chin again and stomped her numbing feet. At twenty-five, she should be well past schoolgirl crushes and pining after a man who obviously had no interest in her, romantically. Right now, she needed to focus on Nonno. Her grandfather was the only family she had left, and she was determined to make sure he knew just how much she loved him before his health stole him from her.
The line moved forward slowly as the sun rose. Its beam hit her squarely in the face as she aligned with an alley across the street, where a newsboy shouted the morning’s headline—Prohibition was officially over. The Volstead Act had been repealed. Alcohol was legal once more. Lucia shook her head. What would that do to a city like Chicago?
No need to borrow trouble. Lucia shielded her eyes until the line shuffled her back into the shadows. Gio continued to carry in crate after crate, yet stopped to talk with those standing in line, as if balancing something heavy on his shoulder was no trouble if it meant making someone’s day. See! That was what she liked so much.
Lucia muttered to herself in Italian until she realized Gio had also stopped to talk to the two goons standing outside the church doors. Goons who obviously still had a job even though Prohibition had ended. Lucia shivered. Everyone knew they were two of Mr. Capone’s men, that even though the mobster was in jail, he kept his empire running. Would that continue after today’s news headline? For all his evil, the man also supplied churches with food for people like her, Italians who were out of work and needed a hand. Would this provision dry up as the alcohol flowed legally once more?
One of the thugs caught her staring and flashed her a lecherous grin. With desperation high, Capone’s goons provided security for the food he donated. Did that mean Gio was somehow involved with the crime family since he also provided food? She didn’t think so, but Gio managed to get things no one else could. And he was talking with Emberto Ettore.
What Readers are Saying
I loved the Christmas theme, elements of suspense, and that Gio gets his own story. A wonderful companion to the rest of the series. ~ reader review
With the sprinkling of Italian words, culture, and close, warm family ties, plus humor at some pretty tense points, and old friends from the first two books, you will be mesmerized by this Christmas romantic suspense. ~ reader review
Grandinetti packs so much into this novella. Great characters. Love. Italian dialogue, which I could not get enough of I might add. Fun secondary characters. Suspense. You truly feel like it's a full novel by the time you reach the end ~ reader review
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