Murder in an Italian Village
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4.6 • 14 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Set in beautiful Positano, Italy, the debut of a cozy mystery series featuring a widowed B&B owner who discovers a body in one of her bedrooms before opening day! Perfect for fans of Mario Giordano and Lorenzo Carcaterra!
On the surface, Bria’s Mediterranean life radiates beauty—the kind her late husband, Carlo, dreamed about when he concocted the romantic idea to start a bed and breakfast on the breathtaking Amalfi Coast. With the grand opening of Bella Bella approaching six months after Carlo’s tragic death, Bria and her eight-year-old son Marco brace for a bittersweet new beginning by the sea . . .
Before celebratory vino flows on opening day, a stranger appears in an otherwise pristine guest room, lifeless and covered in blood. Bria can’t understand why murder would check into Bella Bella. And police are just as puzzled. As suspicions fall on a B&B employee, what’s certain is that saving her reputation—and surviving—depend on catching the real killer before it’s too late.
Flanked by her feisty best friend, Rosalie, and well-traveled sister, Lorenza, Bria vows to prove to everyone in Positano that no one at Bella Bella was involved with the crime. But as the women expose a scandal that stretches across their dazzling tourist village, it will take everything they’ve got to name the murderer and avoid becoming the next target of someone’s deadly vendetta . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Falco's haphazard debut cozy delivers beautiful descriptions of the Amalfi Coast pinned to a largely uninvolving murder mystery. It's a few weeks before peak tourist season in the Italian town of Positano, and recently widowed Bria is preparing to open a bed and breakfast in her late husband's honor. Returning home after a trip to town center, she discovers the body of a man in one of her bedrooms, his shirt covered in blood. She immediately calls her best friend, Rosalie, sister of Positano's chief of police, to plan her next move. After police arrive on the scene, suspicion starts to float toward Bria; in order to safeguard her reputation and that of her budding business, she and Rosalie team up to investigate the killing on their own. With the reckless energy of the Hardy Boys, the duo chases down red herrings, flying into a ridiculous number of false accusations and placing targets on their own backs in the process. Despite starting off with a bang, Falco weighs down the proceedings with a repetitive structure and a handful of inaccuracies (Italy does not, as one character asserts, try anyone by "a jury of peers"). Armchair travelers might get by on the passages about Italy's sights and smells, but readers looking for a satisfying mystery will be disappointed.
