Lily Prior Book order (chronological)

struggling mortician in working-class Rome, Freda only married her repulsive ventriloquist husband, Alberto, because it was prophesied that she'd do so. Now that he's vanished mysteriously along with his equally abhorrent dummy (who Freda suspects is actually a midget), she'd like them both to stay missing -- though she's devastated by the simultaneous disappearance of her soul mate, Pierino, her beloved talking parrot. While the police investigate this series of possible crimes, Freda will continue embalming by day, unleashing her caged passions at night in a seedy cabaret (until a tragic fire leaves the proprietor with a tuba stuck on his head), trying to make do with a talking hamster in lieu of dear Pierino . . . and recalling the vagaries of life that led her to this unfortunate juncture.

Ramona Drottoveo, an albino with unusual looks, is a chambermaid at a lush Italian country estate. Distinguished by an intoxicating scent she exudes, Ramona is despised by women and worshipped by men whose inexhaustible lust for Ramona she satisfies, eagerly and repeatedly. Ramona's life changes when she marries a sweet beekeeper who dies after discovering his bride with a new lover on their wedding day. The superstitious villagers go on to blame Ramona and her lover when the beekeeper's body disappears and the crops fail, and they exile the couple from the estate to the neighboring city of Naples. There, we follow Ramona through her tragicomic misadventures where her life is transformed once again by the birth of her unwanted daughter, Blandina, who 'steals' Ramona's scent, depriving her mother of her only asset. No longer able to seduce men into blind submission, Ramona returns humbly to the estate to an unexpected welcome - and revenge.

When a lonely olive-grower sows seeds of love in search for romance, he cannot know the chaos he will cause. Instead of the voluptuous woman of his dreams, the mule Gezabel falls head over hooves in love with him and the spell of Ardour is cast across the region.