Mora Italian – Phoenix, Arizona
In the dark ages before satellite radio and podcasts, my Kim and I usually listened to books on tape to pass the time during long trips. Mystery author Patricia Cornwell was one of my Kim’s very favorites. The protagonist for Cornwell’s best-selling novels was medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, a perfectionist and workaholic who uses forensic technologies to solve crime. Most of Cornwell’s novels kept us enthralled from onset to finale. Then came that one novel, the one building up toward a slowly revealing and scintillating climax but which finished abruptly. The bad guy did it! The end! That abrupt conclusion torqued so much I swore I’d never listen to another Kay Scarpetta novel. My aggravation was so deep I removed a New York City restaurant named Scarpetta’s from my lengthy restaurant bucket list. In my disappointment at the novel’s ending, I bucketed Scarpetta’s the fabulous Italian restaurant with Scarpetta, the forensic examiner who dared solve a murder before my Kim and I were ready to stop listening. Though we haven’t visited New York City in decades, my bucket list was lightened by one all because a novelist thought 400-pages was enough. Talk about short-sighted…her, not me. When owner-chef Scott Conant left…