The Caregiver in Search of Authenticity (Cicero Sensebearer Mysteries)

Cicero's Italian father gave him his first name and this illegitimate, but valued, son received his surname from his Seminole Indian mother, Mattie Smith. The title, "Sensebearer," was once given to the man of ability who could negotiate the divide between the warring and peace-seeking tribal factions.

Mattie is disappointed that her son plans a career in academic research away from the real world of conflict and resolution for which she has prepared him. She persuades Cicero, just back from a European sojourn where he was studying linguistics, to use his interim time to look for the nurse-caregiver that has, without explanation, abandoned her patient, the widow of a man who was probably also Mattie's lover.

The Sensebearer uncovers the converging mysteries of the nurse's eventful past, the widow's balked will, and the machinations of those who would protect the status quo in the rural fiefdom where he grew up. Mentored by a veteran of military security and adapting ingredients from his triple heritages - Italian insight, Indian stoicism and Southern cool - to the role of private investigator, he uncovers the passions and the betrayals that lead to timely and untimely death in backwoods, cow-country Florida.