Murder on the Vine

Tuscan Mysteries, Book 3

De: Camilla Trinchieri

Narrado por: Danny Deferrari

Ex-NYPD homicide detective Nico Doyle investigates the murder of a local bartender in the Tuscan countryside.

On a late October Sunday morning in Gravigna, local maresciallo Perillo is having breakfast with ex-NYPD detective Nico Doyle when he is called back to the station in Greve. Laura Benati, the young manager of Hotel Bella Vista, is worried—her bartender and good friend eighty-year-old Cesare Costanzi has been missing for three days.

The next morning, Jimmy, co-owner of Bar All’Angolo, Gravigna’s local café, where Nico is a frequent patron, runs out of gas on his way back from Florence. When Nico meets him to help, Nico’s dog, OneWag, reacts to the smell coming from Jimmy’s trunk. Inside Nico finds a body wrapped in plastic: Cesare Costanzi, stabbed several times in the chest.

Why would anyone kill Cesare, and how did he end up in Jimmy’s car? That’s for Nico to find out, as Perillo once again turns to Nico for help with the investigation.

©2022 Camilla Trinchieri (P)2022 Recorded Books

Good addition to series!

cultural-exploration, dog, expats, family, family-business, family-drama, family-dynamics, friendship, law-enforcement, murder, murder-investigation, muted-humor, procedural, read, relationship-issues, relationships, relatives, restaurant, secrets, small-business, small-town, Tuscany, LGBT*****

Widowed ex-NYPD homicide detective (Nico) moves to Tuscany where he has good memories and his wife's family (and they need his help in the restaurant). Remember the adage about taking the man out of the job? He got to be friends with the local Carabinieri (Perillo and Daniele) last year over a murder and has made many other friends as well including a woman artist and a dog, OneWag.
I think that this can stand alone because the author references the past very well. I was surprised, however, that the cast of characters (pun intended) came at the end. There is quite a bit of personal stuff going on with the continuing characters as well as the new ones, and the integrated work by Carabinieri and retired NYPD is outstanding (especially with all the roadblocks erected by suspects).
Expect plot twists, beautiful countryside, believable engaging characters, red herrings, and mouthwatering menus. EXCELLENT read! Proof that books in series get better as they go along.
I requested and received a free e-book copy from Soho Press/Soho Crime via NetGalley. Thank you!

A nice trip back to Tuscany

The story was well written but the read was way to rushed. Sometimes I couldn’t tell which character was speaking making difficult to follow the story.

Good story, rushed narration

Another good story line from this author! As others have noted, narration was often rushed. *However* it was a joy to have a narrator who did an excellent job with the Italian!
I’ll read her next one.

Good story. The narrator was so-so.

This is a good story. I enjoyed the mystery and the further development of the characters. However, the narrator read way too fast, and had little expression. He read in an almost monotone, and did not pause or enunciate punctuation. Also, mispronunciation of certain English words was distracting.

Blah narration

If you like cozy mysteries and Italian culture and hearing about food and more food and wine, this is an enjoyable read. It's probably much better if you read it rather than listen to it, though.
As far as listening to the Audible version : The narrator has a particular kind of continual pleasant drone that gives everybody the same personality, as he makes everyone sound very nice and pleasant and he doesn't differentiate the characters or the moment. So you often can't tell who's talking, and you can't tell when he has started a new chapter, so you think you're still with the same people in the same location.

Terrible Reader, good story

The characters are lively, the stories exciting, but the reader kills it. He sounds like he’s just reading pages as fast as he can. It does the books and the author a disservice.

Fast talking narrator

I love this series. This time the narrator just spoke to fast. It made some of the good writing rushed. I found myself hitting the 30 second rewind many times.

A good story, though, that transports you to the Tuscan hillsides!

Good promotion of life in Toscana, weak story could benefit from better narration

The narrator sounds like he is reading the news in a hurry, and as if he really would like to be somewhere else. I often wondered which character was saying what lines. Not sure how he got the gig and how his reading was approved for release. This is ultimately on the producers and the folks in charge with content. I guess there is little if any quality control. Even if a book is “included” in the membership, I still expect to be offered something that was produced with care.

The reader didn’t know how to pronounce the names of the protagonists in the book, much less words like trattoria.

I enjoyed the book, and even the reader, despite the fact that he hadn’t taken the time to figure out how to pronounce the main protagonists, or even the bar around the corner. words like trattoria were mispronounced. I thought the bar was named after an African country as opposed to the bar around the corner. I am assuming that the name of the murder victim was Cesare, though I am not looking at a book but listening to it. And as for the poor Maresciallo. Please take at least one minute before reading a book and check out the pronunciation of the main characters before reading a whole book and repeating names over and over and over. Totally got in the way of enjoyment of the book. It takes one minute on the Internet.

Slightly tough listening experience

I enjoy these stories and the characters are really interesting, but the narration makes the listening experience a bit of a drag. There is a slight clunkiness that makes it seem like this is a translation (?). The off word choice and turn of phrase, combined with the odd intonation of the narrator, and lack of unique voices for each character means it takes more work to listen. It’s one of those books I enjoy IN SPITE of the narration instead of because of it.