A Novel
That Last Night
in Italy
Some secrets are buried. Others live in the family.
Stay in the Story
Letters from Italy
Behind-the-scenes, and first word on Book Two, arriving by the holidays.
Praise
Early Words
A house, a family, and a summer that refuses to end.
Il Corriere della Sera
Christie’s plotting with du Maurier’s weather. Atmosphere doing the work of shock.
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The dog alone is worth the read — and then the last forty pages arrive.
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The Cause
Gli Amici di Charlie
50%
Half of every book’s proceeds go to the volunteer dog shelter in Orvieto — run on about one euro per dog, per day.
Open-air enclosures, no heat in winter or air conditioning in summer, and a full-time volunteer team who have driven adoptions up and abandonments down. The dogs of the story carry the same love into the fiction.
Book One · September 2026
That Last Night in Italy
A crumbling palazzo, a childhood murder, and a dog who sees ghosts.
Dante Monaldeschi fled Italy as a child after his parents were murdered in a moonlit olive grove. As an adult, he returns to his family’s crumbling palazzo to uncover the secrets that drove him away — and the dog who has been waiting for him sees far more than the living.
Dante and Amara must solve the past before it claims another victim. Christie and du Maurier for a Lucy Foley reader — twists over gore, atmosphere over shock.
Imagery
The Look
Warm candlelit interiors, frescoed palazzo walls, olive groves and hillsides, old books and antiquities — and Ellen herself, always at home in that world.
Do
- Lean into warm, low, natural light and deep shadow
- Show Italy: stone, frescoes, olive branches, moonlight, cypress
- Pair the author photo with the book
- Keep layouts airy with generous margins
- Feature the dogs — they’re part of the story and the mission
Don’t
- Use bright, flat, or corporate stock photography
- Crowd the page — no busy, cluttered grids
- Introduce purple, or decorative script fonts
- Show graphic or violent imagery
- Let gold dominate — it’s an accent, not a wash
The Author
Ellen Misciattelli Bernardini
An American writer living in Umbria, writing the Italy she wakes up in.
She turns the palazzos, olive groves, and old family secrets around her into lush, intelligent mysteries — atmospheric, twist-driven, and steeped in Italian history. Cultured, warm, and entirely at home in the old world.
Half of every book’s proceeds go to Gli Amici di Charlie, the volunteer dog shelter in Orvieto — the dogs on the page and the dogs being rehomed in real life are one story.
Appearances
Readings & Signings
14 Sept · Milan
Libreria Verso
19:00 · Free entry
02 Oct · London
Daunt Books
18:30 · Ticketed
19 Oct · Orvieto
Gli Amici di Charlie
11:00 · Shelter benefit
The Letter
From The Palazzo
Behind the scenes from the palazzo, the real places behind the fiction, the dogs, and first word on the next book.
No spam, no hard sell. A few letters a year.
Brand Essence
Some secrets are buried.
Others live in the family.
That Last Night in Italy · Out September 2026
The Series
Built To Grow
Every title follows the same shape — That Last Night in ___ — moving through the regions of Italy, each cover keeping the engraved caps, the midnight blue, and a single building under the moon.
Book One · Sept 2026
That Last Night
in Italy
Book Two
That Last Night
in Umbria
Future
That Last Night
in Lazio
Future
That Last Night
in Sardinia
ELLEN misciattelli bernardini
The Book Events Contact
A novel
A Last Night
in Italy
Two strangers, one ferry, and the hours before the season ends on the Amalfi coast.
Praise
“A book that smells of salt and lemon rind.”
— Il Corriere della Sera
14 Sept — Milan
Libreria Verso, 19:00
02 Oct — London
Daunt Books, 18:30
Ellen Misciattelli Bernardini
Atmospheric Italian mysteries
50% of all proceeds support Gli Amici di Charlie, the volunteer dog shelter in Orvieto.
© 2026 Ellen Misciattelli Bernardini · Cover art by Open Road Media