‘White Shotgun’ ends with a fizzle

Poor Ana Grey. She can’t take a vacation, much less a romantic one, without running into trouble.

The FBI special agent encounters a lot of unexpected trouble in her latest adventure, “White Shotgun.” California author April Smith puts Grey through some tough situations involving her lover, Sterling McCord, and some distant family members in Italy.

“White Shotgun” is less a thriller and more of a mystery, where relationships take center stage. Most of the story takes place in Italy, a romantic country with strong ties to the mafia and organized crime. It’s a terrific place for a family drama.

Before the story jumps to the Mediterranean, Grey finds herself on vacation in London with McCord, a former Special Operations soldier who now works for Oryx, a private security firm. But the two are thrust into violence during a drive-by shooting in front of an Italian restaurant in South Kensington. Several die and many more get hurt.

After helping out at the scene while injured, Grey is then given an assignment by the FBI: track down Cecilia Maria Nicosa and her husband, Nicoli, in Siena, Italy. Nicoli is a wealthy entrepreneur who may have ties to the mafia and international drug trafficking.

But in a wild turn of events, Grey is told that Cecilia is her half sister, who has been trying to find Grey. Cecilia wants to give Grey a small inheritance from a family member in El Salvador. Grey is stunned. Her father, an immigrant from El Salvador, died when she was young in California. She never knew she had such an extended family.

Grey surveys her situation while she packs for Italy: “Vacation was definitely over. I’d been awake for twenty-four hours and traumatized more than I knew, overwhelmed by manic exhaustion. The notion of putting up a front for some long-lost relative seemed beyond my capabilities.”

Minus McCord, Grey travels to Italy and discovers she may be in over her head. Her Italian family has some dark secrets. Her nephew is stabbed and Cecilia is kidnapped. And the legendary horse race in Siena, the Palio, isn’t violence-free either. All of a sudden, Grey wonders if she’s gonna make out of the country alive.

“White Shotgun” gets off to a rip-roaring start but then settles down into a predictable mystery that has too many talking moments. Smith seems to have trouble with plotting and pacing, although her story has a few solid action scenes, especially the Palio. Those are fun to read amid the story’s rich Mediterranean ambiance.

However, the story ends with a fizzle, and I’m left wondering what all the fuss was about. It left me hungry for more — more Italy, more fun and more drama.