Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride
A Novel
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
When a crime on a beautiful Italian island stumps the police, locals turn to the trusted elderly widow Nonna Maria in this transporting mystery from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lorenzo Carcaterra, “one of the all-time greats” (Jeffery Deaver).
“An utterly delightful tale starring one of the most charming amateur sleuths ever created.”—Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of Listen to Me
Nonna Maria has lived on Ischia, an island in the Gulf of Naples, her entire life. Recognizable by the widow’s black she’s worn every day for decades, she always has pasta on the stove and espresso in the pot for the neighbors who stop by to ask her advice on life and love. Everyone knows her, and she knows everyone’s business. So if something goes wrong, islanders look to her, not the local carabinieri, to find the solution.
When a recently engaged woman confesses that she’s afraid her fiancé, a stranger to Ischia with a murky past, might not be who he seems, Nonna Maria helps her disappear so she can investigate the true nature of her betrothed. The stranger has also raised the suspicions of Captain Murino of the carabinieri, but he’s occupied investigating the death of a tour boat captain who drowned in the wee hours of the morning. Captain Murino believes it was an accident, but Nonna Maria knows the man was a born sailor and too good a swimmer to drown, no matter how much wine he might have drunk. While Captain Murino has his hands full, she pours herself a glass of white wine and gets to work, even though getting involved will expose her to the dangers lurking just beneath the surface of her idyllic home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nonna Maria, the distinctive protagonist of this gentle standalone from bestseller Carcaterra (the Tank Rizzo series), seldom travels from her home on the Italian island of Ischia, though she has a vast network of friends who come to her "with issues that should be brought to the attention of the local carabinieri and not a widow with a bad right leg." She, in turn, depends on her buddies, including a Camorra crime boss and a priest, to help her resolve any problems that can't be cleared up by common sense alone. One such is the plight of a reluctant bride-to-be, who has impetuously agreed to marry a handsome stranger and is now afraid to break things off for fear of what he might do to her family. Meanwhile, Nonna Maria uses her encyclopedic knowledge of the island and its inhabitants to help a carabinieri captain investigate the death of an 85-year-old tour boat captain. All the nice people involved are rewarded with happy endings. Italophiles wishing for a brief vacation in charming and clever company will revel in this love letter to Ischia.