Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano and John Brownjohn

"On her sixtieth birthday, Auntie Poldi retires to Sicily, intending to while away the rest of her days with good wine, a view of the sea, and few visitors. But Sicily isn't quite the tranquil island she thought it would be, and something always seems to get in the way of her relaxation. When her handsome young handyman goes missing--and is discovered murdered--she can't help but ask questions. Soon there's an investigation, a smoldering police inspector, a romantic entanglement, one false lead after another, a rooftop showdown, and finally, of course, Poldi herself, slightly tousled but still perfectly poised."--

"For fans of A Man Called Ove and the novels of Adriana Trigiani: a charming, delightfully sexy, and bighearted novel starring Auntie Poldi, Sicily's newest amateur sleuth"--

Entertaining but overhyped. Also a bit strange at times, with the nephew narrator and all.

Entertaining mystery set in Sicily, with a structure that could have been too confusing and contrived, but somehow worked for me - the “author” is the title character's nephew, a writer working on a family saga that never gets off the ground, who visits Poldi periodically and ends up writing about her amateur sleuthing adventures instead.

Lots of local color and an eccentric MC (based on the real author's real aunt) make this an amusing way to while away a few hours. I might try reading the next adventure in the original German, hoping not to get too derailed by Bavarian dialect.

Also great to have an older woman as the energetic and sensual center of the story, egging her nephew on to live life more fully, but her periodic bouts of depression and recurrent wish to drink herself to death added a jarring note. Also, her wig slipping off kept distracting me. What did she look like without the wig? Did this not interfere with her amorous adventures? The nephew wondered this too, but she did not answer him.

I didn't finish this but I don't plan to go back to it. I like charming mysteries just shy of cute, with a tendency toward melodrama. This one was too far into the “cute” zone for me.