Another good installment for this hilariously funny series.

To be honest, I don’t necessarily read these for their mysteries but rather for their delightful and colorful characters. The mystery here involves blackmail, greed and the Mafia, and as usual Poldi is racing to beat her Chief Inspector boyfriend to the denouement.

As far as the writing is concerned there is a bit much of run-ons and long-windedness, but as it is usually in aid of the humorous content, it doesn’t bother me overmuch. Wonderful descriptions of Sicily, her customs and history. I enjoyed this one.

Auntie Poldi is back and sleuthing another mystery! She's looking into her dear Lady's murder and stirring up her own love life in the process. I enjoy Poldi's adventures and look forward to the next one in the series...this one ended on an interesting note!

Thank you to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in exchange for an honest review.

Mystery | Adult
When I was a girl delving into adult mysteries after devouring Nancy Drew et al, I discovered a series called Mrs. Pollifax, by Dorothy Gilman. (Amazing that I recall her name after nearly 40 years!!) An American widow seeking adventure in her senior years, she decides to apply to the CIA. But when dropping off her resume, she is mistaken for a real spy and is sent off on a dangerous mission. I am reminded of Mrs. Pollifax in Auntie Poldi, the sexy sixty-year-old sleuth who seduced, drank, bullied and persevered her way through the first muder on her adopted island of Sicily in Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions. Both women are resourceful and, like Miss Marple before them, keen observers of people’s hubris, frailties and quirks.
Poldi of course adds a freshness to the cozy mystery genre with her devil-may-care approach and bed-hopping adventures, and while I thought I might tire of this device, she simply grew on me throughout this second novel. A poisoned dog is the newest case to pique Poldi’s interest, but it is not long before human bodies start piling up and our derermined amateur detective is convinced they are all connected. When her neighbourhood’s water supply suddenly dries up, Poldi knows she is on the right track, refusing to give up despite the pleas of her exhausted but remarkably virile lover, the rumpled Commissario Vito Montana of the Polizia di Stato. And the Italian countryside makes a fine backdrop for muder, with delicious meals, pastries, limoncello and plenty of beer to cool emotions during the unusually hot autumn weather. A fun follow-up to the first novel, this one is again translated from the original German by John Brownjohn, leaving just enough Italian to contribute to the exotic setting. My thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the advance reading copy provided through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
More discussion and review of this novel: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40796155.

Auntie Poldi is such a great character and she is as amusing, clever, and sharp in this new adventure. I love this series and hope it goes on for a long time. Poldi is so much fun to spend time with because, and I love the narrative style of the book. The adventure in this story was just as much fun for me, and was the perfect summer read that I needed. It made me think, it made me laugh, and I loved all of it.

Italian-German author Mario Giordano really did have a Bavarian-born Auntie Poldi who left Munich for Torre Archirafi in Sicily when she was 60. Luckily for us, our fictional heroine does not drink herself to death like her real-life counterpart. Instead, Auntie Poldi (a.k.a. Isolde Oberreider) launches into a second investigation in this sequel, one that she first encountered in Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions.

Auntie Poldi, in her usual inimitable flamboyant style, investigates the murders of her neighbor’s dog and a clairvoyant. Much to the exasperation of her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Chief Inspector Vito Montana, Poldi is certain the two crimes are related. With the help of her loving sisters-in-law, the village priest and the sad (but very brave) Signora Cocuzza, plus Auntie Poldi’s own perspicacity and imagination, she figures out not just these two crimes but several more. And what a cliffhanger ending!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in exchange for an honest review.

I was looking forward to Auntie Poldi’s adventure riding her Vespa, but was left a bit disappointed. To me the book seems to drag on and unfortunately did not excite me as I had expected.

The scenery was very descriptive and made me feel as if I was actually there alongside Auntie Poldi. So, kudos for that as that helped tremendously.

This book was provided free in exchange for my honest opinion.

Auntie Poldi is an obstinate 60+ year old Bavarian living in Sicily. She has an active sex life that she tells her nephew about. (This Reviewer's opinion: Really??!?) “Poldi stopped winding Montana’s chest hair round her finger…”

Unnamed nephew tries to write a book and describes the process. ”Whenever I open my laptop and look at my mess of a draft, I’m overcome with leaden inertia, paralyzing fatigue and a sort of ominous malaise. It’s as if I’ve just opened Pandora’s box and am already experiencing the preliminary symptoms of the plague.“ (Reviewer comment: nothing like mixing up those metaphors and stirring the pot.) Perhaps something ‘humorous’ just didn’t translate? Discombobulated. Auntie is a chain-smoking boozer too. Did I mention that the story jumps around a lot?

The writing style didn’t work for me. A description of Mount Etna reads, "the mountain of mountains, groaned and snorted every minute of the day and night, emitting muffled salutations from the bowels of the earth that preyed on people's nerves and shook them to the core." Continuing with the overused (and lame) volcano metaphor: “Etna growled in the distance, palm trees rustled under a shower of ash, and somewhere across the street a quiz show presenter’s hysterical voice rang out, mingled with canned laughter and applause, as if a studio audience were following and commenting on every erotic climax, every sigh, every whispered word…” One more within the first few chapters: “Feeling exhausted and mellow after her eruptions of passion and the confluence of two volcanic streams of mature libido…”

I give up. Lots of reviewers enjoyed the book. Too chaotic for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for granting access to an arc of this book for an honest review.

I feel like Auntie Poldi could be my spirit animal (if I was 60+ and German). These characters are infused with so many details and experiences that you love reading their story just to find out more about them and their life. And the beautiful Sicilian setting and half bad either! Makes me want to visit one day very soon! I can’t wait to read the next installment to see what crazy escapades Poldi gets into next!

AUNTIE POLDI AND THE VINEYARDS OF ETNA by Mario Giordano features many of the same characters as Aunt Poldi and the Sicilian Lions, a debut mystery that met with much acclaim when it was translated into English and published in the States. As a result, I was quite curious to learn more about Aunt Poldi, but, sadly, was not drawn into this latest mystery. This one begins with Poldi suspecting the Mafia being responsible for a poisoned dog and a cut-off neighborhood water supply. Her nephew arrives and narrates most of the text as Poldi pursues clues, riding her Vespa to a local vineyard where she finds yet another body. There's humor here and romance with chief homicide inspector Vito Montana, but also quite a bit of description – somehow it all just did not "click" for me. Kirkus, however, gave AUNTIE POLDI AND THE VINEYARDS OF ETNA a starred review and there's sure to be more in the series.

German Auntie Poldi is living in Italy and has become rather famous locally for having solved a murder. When her neighbor’s dog is poisoned, Auntie Poldi just knows the mafia had a hand in it and is itching to solve yet another murder

As Auntie Poldi sleuths, a visit to a vineyard yields another body and she won’t stop until she proves her theory and the murder.

A cute story, but a bit too drawn out with the nephew’s novel. I’m not sure I’d read another as the book seemed to drag on at times due to the content that could have been eliminated. But all in all a decent mystery. If you are an Agatha Raisin fan, you will see a connection..if put her in a dirndl and move her to Italy.

Raise a glass, Auntie Poldi's back! After solving her handyman’s murder, Poldi plans to enjoy her Sicilian retirement, drink in hand. But a friend’s dog is poisoned, the water supply’s been cut off (mafioso!), and Poldi finds a body in Achille’s vineyard. As she noses around, Poldi's affair with the handsome Chief Inspector grows tense. Wine-snortingly funny.

cultural-exploration, amateur-sleuth, women-sleuths, murder-investigation, Sicily, verbal-humor, situational-humor, law-enforcement, laugh-out-loud, international-crime-and-mystery *****

More dogged than Miss Marple, more outrageous and funny than Auntie Mame, more conversant with the persona of Death than The Book Thief is our German Sicilian wonder known to her neophyte author/nephew as Auntie Poldi! She is a determined amateur sleuth, a deprived widow, friend to many, frequent nighttime companion to a Sicilian detective inspector, and wearer of impossible wigs. I snorted and chortled and laughed out loud throughout the entire book! That doesn't diminish the murder investigation or the other relevant investigations and the convoluted path those investigations take. The locations and scenery are familiar to those of us who are addicted to the Commissario Montalbano series. There is no way I could decide whether this or the Sicilian Lions is better, only that reading the first is not necessary to enjoyment of this. But it would be fun.
John Brownjohn certainly transforms the Sicilian idioms and German storyline into a fantastically fine read.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley. Thank you! !

I read Auntie Poldi and the Sicilan Lions, the first book in this series translated into the English and enjoyed the story and Auntie Poldi as a cozy mystery character. In this second book, while I still enjoyed Poldi, she didn't quite have the depth that she did in the first book. The plot here was very secondary and I felt that the narrative went a little off the rails at times. Still entertaining, but wasn't as much of a page turner for me as the first book.

From the publisher: When Prosecco‑loving Auntie Poldi retired to Sicily from Germany, she never dreamed her tranquil days would be interrupted by murder. But Sicily had other plans, and Poldi found herself honor‑bound to solve the disappearance of her beloved (and cute) handyman. Now she’s finally ready for some peace and quiet—interrupted by romantic encounters with handsome Chief Inspector Montana, of course—when the water supply to her neighborhood is cut off and a dear friend’s dog is poisoned, telltale signs that a certain familial organization is flexing its muscles. Poldi knows there will be no resolution without her help. She soon finds a body in a vineyard, tangles with the Mafia, and yet again makes herself unpopular in the pursuit of justice. But once wine and murder mix, how could she possibly stay away?

The Auntie Poldi series appeals to me for a couple of reasons. First off, the story is narrated by her nephew, and as a childless aunt I’m always interested in stories about interesting aunts and their relationships with their nephews and nieces. Secondly, it is set in Italy, which I’ve visited twice and hope to visit again. I haven’t been to Sicily but I really want to go (and probably should have saved this book for that trip, but I couldn’t wait).

The author was born in Munich, Germany to Italian immigrants. It feels like he has done his research or has visited Italy often. I’m sure some of the stuff is stereotypical – there is a lot about the Mafia and organized crime – but I know firsthand some of the stuff is not. The sweetened espresso, the crazy driving. There are a lot of dogs in these books, including a scary pair of German shepherds named Hanz and Franz. The Italian love of dogs also seems very typical. A scene involving Poldi, her sisters, her brother-in-law, and the dog was amusingly madcap, as was a scene in which Poldi, her priest, and her sad Signora friend break into a house to search for a clue to a murder. I enjoyed the many references to the active volcano Mount Etna and its continual smoking.

The nephew is a good narrator but a terrible writer who comes to stay with Poldi and work on his terrible novel. (“Another week at my Auntie Poldi’s was over, and I was feeling proud of myself. That needs saying occasionally. I was in full flow. I was the adjective ace, the metaphor magician, the sorcerer of the subordinate clause, the expresser of emotions, the master of a host of startling but entirely plausible turns of events.” (p. 325 of the advance reader copy) His descriptions of his plot are just as bad and show the startling turns are anything but plausible.) Poldi tells him what happened as she investigates crimes, and he tells us, and they are both unreliable and entertaining.

Auntie Poldi reminds me a bit of the best of M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series, although Poldi is more interesting and the plots so far are more original and less formulaic. She is sixty years old and living her best life. Looking forward to a long-running series.

I read an advance reader copy of Auntie Poldi and the Vineyards of Etna. It is scheduled to be published in early March 2019 and will be available at the Galesburg Public Library. The first book in the series, Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions, is available now.

Auntie Poldi is back is the saddle again. She is hot, and bored and the last of water on her street is making her cranky. She needs a good distraction and she gets it when a clue pops up tying the map from her last case to a vineyard on Mount Etna.
Poldi takes a little road trip on her Vespa that turns into an all-niter complete with hangover and a dead body. What is a woman to do but swear to find the murderer? Poldi plunges ahead enlisting the help of Padre Paolo and the Sad Signora to sniff out clues and help with some minor breaking and entering.
Will Poldi survive her latest caper? Will she ever get her water running again? Is Russo really a mafioso? You can't help but love Poldi for all her pizzazz and spunk, I can only hope to emulate her one day.

Auntie Poldi returns! Oh, how I love this woman. She is a German widow of a Sicilian living in the shadow of Mt. Etna and trying not to drink herself to death in view of sea. Once she straightens her wig, puts down her glass of wine and straddles her Vespa, there is no stopping 60 year old Polidi. Not her Sicilian sister-in-laws, not her German want-to-be author nephew, and certainly not her handsome lover, Chief Inspector Montanta!

What does a poisoned dog and the deaths of a fortune teller and a well-known attorney have in common? Could it be the Mafia? Fast-paced, sexy and smart, Giordano transports the reader to sunny Sicily. If you are anything like this 60 year old reader, you will soon be reaching for your laptop to search for Sicilian vacation rentals with a view of ocean.

Auntie Poldi is a bit like Agatha Raisin plunked down in sunny Sicily. The woman is an endless source of witty conversation, narcissistic self-awareness, practicality, and just plain smarts. I'm going back to read the first Auntie Poldi and will then add Giordano and Poldi to my list of must-read new books. Highly recommended for readers who like a little spice and sun with their mysteries.