The Borgia Portrait by David Hewson

 A fascinating search for the ‘lost Lucrezia’

The reader is taken on an enchanting tour of Venice in this second novel in David Hewson’s Arnold Clover series. Retired archivist Arnold, who has made his home in a tiny flat in the beautiful city of canals and calle, is asked by one of his new friends, Carabinieri officer Valentina Fabbri, to help a fellow Brit, Lizzie Hawker, whose father has just died.

Through her mother, a Contessa, who has for a long time been missing presumed dead, Lizzie has inherited a crumbling palazzo on the Grand Canal, along with a heap of other problems, and she is finding herself out of her depth in Venice, where she hasn’t lived since she was a young child.

This novel has a very likeable protagonist in ex pat Arnold Clover, who in the first novel, The Medici Murders, was called in to help the Carabinieri with translation when a British visitor was murdered.

Arnold and his wife had planned to live out their retirement years in Venice and had bought a small apartment there, but on the eve of their departure from England, Arnold’s wife had died because of a deteriorating health condition.

With his house sold and nothing left for him in London, Arnold had to make the move alone, but now, he has settled in, he has made some some good friends in Venice.

Arnold and Lizzie set out to look for a priceless painting that is missing from the palazzo, a portrait of the notorious Lucrezia Borgia. But all they have to go on are some cryptic clues that Lizzie’s mother, Contessa Lucia Scacchi, has left behind.

Thery are up against the clock because other people are interested in finding the painting and are pursuing them through the alleyways. They are being watched by an unscrupulous businessman, and a freelance journalist looking for an exclusive. The local authority is also keen to acquire the palazzo for their own use and the police suspect Lizzie’s dead father of illegally exporting art and threaten to take action against Lizzie herself if the painting isn’t found.

Arnold and Lizzie’s urgent search takes them into many quaint corners where they discover the less well-known history of Venice and Arnold introduces Lizzie to the best of the local food and wine, while finding himself becoming increasingly attracted to Lizzie herself.

This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy crime novels set in Venice with a generous sprinkling of Italian history and culture.

Their frantic quest to find the lost Lucrezia has many twists and turns and the story kept me gripped until the final page.

David Hewson is a former journalist with the Times, the Sunday Times and the Independent. He has written more than 30 novels, including a series of crime novels set in Rome. He now lives near Canterbury in Kent but his deep knowledge of Venice is evident on every page.

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Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio by Mario Giordano

Hilarious road trip highlights the beauty of Sicily for readers

Sicily is the setting again for Mario
Giordano's third Auntie Poldi novel

The irrepressible Auntie Poldi takes her German nephew on a chaotic tour of Sicily, the island she has made her home while carrying out her plan of ‘drinking herself to death with a sea view’, in this third novel in the series.

She is looking for ‘someone’ she hopes will be able to lead her to the mysterious ‘something’ that she has been instructed to find, if she wants to prevent members of her family from being killed.

Despite the gravity of the task, her trip leads her into a series of romantic liaisons and a mixture of hair-raising and hilarious misadventures. It also showcases some of the beauty and magic of the island of Sicily for the reader to enjoy.

All the nephew gets out of it are long uncomfortable hours of driving a Maserati - which he knows was stolen by Poldi from someone she suspects of being in the Mafia – along with the occasional threat to his life.

They are guided on their journey by Uncle Martino, brought along by Poldi as a ‘sat nav’, who is sitting in the back of the car with his constantly farting dog, Totti.

The anonymous German nephew’s sixty-something Bavarian Aunt, Poldi, had been happily enjoying her retirement in the sunshine, with free-flowing Sicilian wine and romantic liaisons with her lover, Chief Inspector Vito Montano.

Then her peace had been interrupted by the last person she had expected to turn up on her doorstep, one of her former husbands.

The unwanted caller had been John Owenya, a detective with the Tanzanian Ministry of Home Affairs, who needed help finding his half-brother, who had gone missing in Sicily.

The real coastal town of Torre Archirafi, between Catania
and Taormina, is home to the fictional Auntie Poldi

Along with his brother had been the sum of ten million dollars that crime gangs both in Sicily and Tanzania apparently had an interest in finding.

The glamorous Poldi feels she has to help her ex-husband, John to find his brother. She wants to save his brother’s life if possible, and also to have the chance of getting back the proceeds from the sale of her house in Tanzania that she felt her ex-husband had cheated her out of when they parted.  

Soon after her nephew from Germany arrives to stay with her for a holiday in Torre Achirafi, she sweeps him off on a madcap hunt to find someone known as ‘Handsome Antonio’.

As usual there is plenty of Sicilian food and wine to savour, no shortage of handsome men interested in Poldi,  and the beautiful backdrop of Sicily under a blue sky to enjoy in this novel, all of which Mario Giordano serves up for the reader with a large dose of humour.

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Doctored Evidence by Donna Leon

Atmospheric page turner plumbs the murky depths of Venetian daily life

Doctored Evidence is the 13th
Commissario Brunetti novel

Brunetti is investigating the murder of Signora Battestini, a miserly old woman who was disliked by everyone in Venice who knew her.

He has two things motivating him to solve the murder of this unpleasant old woman. One is to exonerate Flori, her domestic helper, who is now dead herself. He has been given evidence that shows she could not possibly have killed her employer.

The second is to stop another police officer from harassing and trying to discredit Signora Gismondi, a neighbour of the victim, who claims she can prove the domestic helper’s innocence.

It is the summer and his work is made all the more arduous because of the extreme heat in his beloved home city, but he works determinedly to find who was really responsible for Signora Battestini‘s death. He does not want the murder to remain unsolved and the dead Romanian domestic to be presumed guilty while the real killer is still at large.

Signora Battestini was found alone in her apartment with her head battered in, by her doctor when he paid his monthly visit.

Her maid, Flori, was on a train for Romania when police boarded it and searched the carriages. Asked for her documents, she panicked and made a run for it and was hit by a train when she crossed the tracks.

For Brunetti’s nemesis, Lieutenant Scarpa, who is investigating the death, it means that the case is closed. However, when the victim’s neighbour, Signora Gismondi, returns from a business trip to London and reads about the murder, she knows that Flori could not possibly have been the murderer.

Before going on her trip, she had rescued Flori after her cantankerous employer had locked her out of the apartment without any of her possessions. She had seen Signora Battestini at the window making gestures to Flori and when the unhappy maid had told her she just wanted to return to Romania, she had given her money and taken her to the station and put her on the train.

Donna Leon's novels invariably conjure up the
atmosphere of Venice in the reader's mind

But when she tries to explain this to Lieutenant Scarpa, he does not believe her and tells her that Flori was guilty and the case is closed. Brunetti later gives her a more sympathetic hearing and he sets out to investigate for himself.

With Sergeant Vianello at his side, he looks into the old woman’s past and her financial affairs, and those of her dead husband and son. He finds out she was very wealthy, despite seeming to live in poverty and having earned a reputation for extreme meanness.

Sustained by lavish meals cooked by his wife, Paola, and evening drinks on their terrace while they discuss the meaning of life, he keeps digging until he finds out the truth.

He even personally searches the attic of the old lady’s apartment and methodically goes through the bizarre items she has hoarded, until he finds the real motive for the murder.

Doctored Evidence has a complex plot and the reader learns more about life in Venice along the way. This 13th book in the series is a good reminder of why I should keep reading Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti novels.

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Murder in Tuscany by T A Williams

An Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Mystery

Murder in Tuscany introduces
detective Dan Armstrong

This first crime novel by T A Williams is set in the Tuscan hills above Florence and has many descriptions of the gorgeous scenery and local food and wine enjoyed by the characters.

Villa Volpone, the home of the best-selling crime novelist, Jonah Moore, is hosting a creative writing course, and among the 11 students are writers of erotic novels at various stages in their careers.  Some are established authors - ladies in their sixties, seventies and eighties - and some of the younger ones are yet to publish their first books.

Standing out from the other students is retired Detective Chief Inspector Dan Armstrong, who has still not finished his first novel, an historical murder mystery set in Florence. His former colleagues have paid for the course as a retirement present for him and have chosen the genre of erotica, either by mistake, or for a laugh.

Although he has misgivings about the focus of the course, Dan has been persuaded to participate anyway by his daughter, and he also feels in need of a holiday, having just parted from his wife after many years of marriage. He is looking forward to exploring Florence in his free time, to gather background material for his own book.

His host, Jonah Moore, turns out to be arrogant and unashamedly lecherous towards the younger women, and not many tears are shed after he is discovered in the dining room with his own Silver Dagger award sticking out of his chest.

Dan has already met the investigating officer in the case, Commissario Virgilio Pisano, who is a friend of one of his ex-colleagues. Pisano is keen to have Dan to help out with the investigation with his translation skills, and he also encourages him to share his own ideas about the murder, based on his long experience.

T A Williams, a romance author
with a taste for crime

Once you get into the novel you become more acquainted with the cast of characters, some of who are described at the beginning by Dan as ‘septuagenarians who are remarkably sprightly for their advancing years,’ which I thought might seem patronising to older readers who are active and still have careers. But nonetheless, Murder in Tuscany is an enjoyable read.

Dan is a likeable character and remarkably charitable towards his former wife, who despite having set up home with another man, has taken his house, car, and a large chunk of his pension away from him.

But the other star of the book is the villa’s black labrador, Oscar, who befriends Dan by knocking him into the pool and then remains by his side throughout the novel helping with the investigation.

The author, T A Williams, is the author of many romance novels set in Tuscany, and Murder in Tuscany, published in 2022 by Boldwood Books Limited, is a promising start to his crime series.

Dan, as a retired Detective Chief Inspector, is well set up to help the local police and investigate more intriguing cases, and I look forward to reading his adventures in the next book, Murder in Chianti.

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The Treasure Hunt by Andrea Camilleri

A disturbing puzzle is solved amid chaos and comedy

The Treasure Hunt is the 16th
in the Montalbano series

The story begins with Gregorio and Caterina, two elderly people who are brother and sister, reported to be shooting at the people in the piazza below their apartment to ‘punish them for their sins’.

News cameras later film Inspector Montalbano, with his gun in hand, scaling the building to try to capture the deranged pair. Afterwards, when order has been restored, he is hailed as a hero by everyone.

But a few days later, he starts to receive messages in bad verse from an anonymous person challenging him to take part in a treasure hunt.

While trying to work out who is sending the sinister poems, Montalbano also has to lead his men in a hunt to find a beautiful young woman who has been reported missing by her distraught father.

The reader joins Montalbano on the trail through the sunny Sicilian streets, where he meets some eccentric characters and constantly finds himself in hilarious situations.

And from the descriptions of dishes on the menu at Enzo’s trattoria, or the meals cooked by the Inspector’s housekeeper, Adelina, eaten on his terrace overlooking the beach, you can almost smell the Sicilian food that the inspector enjoys along the way.

But all the time the clock is ticking, as the officers race to find the missing woman before she comes to any harm, and the Inspector becomes concerned about the increasingly sinister clues for the treasure hunt that he keeps receiving.

Camilleri died in 2019. He is
buried in Rome's Non-Catholic
cemetery in Testaccio

Montalbano also has to put up with irate phone calls from his long-distance girlfriend, Livia, who is jealous of his friendship with a beautiful Swedish woman, Ingrid.

On top of this, there is interference from his boss, the Commissioner, and the mangled speech of his officer, Catarella, when he relays telephone messages to the Inspector, to contend with.

Only at the end of the book, when Montalbano has put himself at great risk to solve the disappearance of the young woman, does everything  fall into place and the shooting spree carried out by the elderly brother and sister finally make any sense.

Another great trip to Sicily in the company of Montalbano.

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