David Downie

Author of a dozen nonfiction books on the culture, history and food of France and Italy, and half a dozen adventure, murder and mystery novels set in California, Italy and France: that's David Downie in one line.

Downie is a native San Franciscan who moved to Paris in the mid-1980s and divides his time between France and Italy. His travel, food and arts features have appeared in over 50 print magazines and newspapers worldwide and on dozens of websites.

His latest nonfiction books are The Paris, Paris Timeline; A Taste of Paris: A History of the Parisian Love Affair with Food (winner of the 2017 Gourmand Award for best American food-travel book) and A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light, both published by St. Martin’s Press. His collection of travel essays, Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light, and his travel memoir Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James, are considered classics in their genre and have been reprinted countless times.

Downie's most recent novel is Clear, Cool, Sweet Water: A Late-in-Life Romance. Roman Roulette: Murder in the Catacombs; and Red Riviera: Murder on the Italian Riviera are mystery/crime novels set in Rome's catacombs and on the stunning Italian Riviera in Portofino, the Cinque Terre and Genoa. They are the first in a new series featuring the fictional Italian police commissioner Daria Vinci. Four of Clubs: Murder in the High Sierra, is a stand-alone mystery set in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Downie's classic espionage/political thriller Paris City of Night was reissued in an updated second edition by Seine, Tiber and Bay.