Francesca Fratamico

A Love Like Hell

In the small southern Italian town of Castelmauro, a girl dies in the wild flames of a valley fire. But these flames are not so wild and uncontrolled. They have been plotted, with a plan to kill. To seek revenge.

In this backward community, gossip travels like the grapevines in the valleys, and soon the word of murder is on the lips of everyone.

Months later, Domenico Fango is charged and jailed for the murder of his best friend and lover, Chiara. As he waits out each new day in his small prison cell, he recalls the hot summer leading to Chiara’s death. A summer where secrets corrupted love, leading to irreparable consequences.

Domenico is convinced he is not guilty. It was that man. But as time passes, he questions his convictions. Was everything he was taught to believe really true?

How much more complicated than love could murder be?

Veils of Smoke

Ilaria waits. Waits for her mind to come to a decision which will change the course of her life forever. Should she go or stay?

There is a choice to be made, and as she deliberates Ilaria recalls the intense, hot summer at the Pizzeria Sofia in Vasto, where Filippo, the chef, made her a proposition she found hard to refuse. A secret. An affair.



But as summer fades and autumn arrives, guilt, fear, and the weight of spectres from the past and present threaten to expose the secret and what lies beneath it…

Smoke is a screen. A veil. But how long can it truly hide a scandalous affair?

Emeralds Among the Sand

Set in a small fishing town in southern Italy called Termoli and centred around, and narrated by, the ancient castle at the heart of the town that views the stories and lives of the towns’ inhabitants. 

The novel revolves around Thomas (an English fisherman), his flatmate Roderigo and a mysterious woman, Mariella. Thomas and Roderigo both fall under Mariella’s spell, but as their relationships strengthen, friendships are destroyed, falsehoods are told, and dark pasts are revealed. 

Emeralds Among the Sand considers the subject of love in many forms, from conditional to unrequited love and shows how love can both trap us and set us free. Francesca Fratamico takes us to the heart of an Italian town full of intriguing characters and complex stories.