Murder in Chianti

By: Camilla Trinchieri

Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto

Set in the heart of Tuscan wine country, Camilla Trinchieri's new mystery introduces Nico Doyle, a former NYPD homicide detective who's just looking for space to grieve when he finds himself pulled into a local murder investigation.

Mourning the loss of his wife, Rita, former NYPD homicide detective Nico Doyle moves to her hometown of Gravigna in the winesoaked region of Chianti. Half Italian and half Irish, Nico finds himself able to get by in the region with the help of Rita’s relatives, but he still feels alone and out of place. He isn’t sure if it’s peace he’s seeking, but it isn’t what he finds. Early one morning, he hears a gunshot and a dog's cries near his cabin and walks out to discover a dead body in the woods, flashily dressed in gold tennis shoes. When the police arrive, Nico hastily adopts the fluffy white dog as his own and wants nothing more to do with the murder.

But Salvatore Perillo, the local maresciallo, discovers Nico's professional background and enlists him to help with the case. It turns out more than one person in this idyllic corner of Italy knew the victim, and with a very small pool of suspects, including his own in-laws, Nico must dig up Gravigna’s every last painful secret to get to the truth.

©2020 Camilla Trinchieri (P)2020 Recorded Books

Outstanding - setting, cast, performance all great

What a wonderful surprise to have discovered this series! It's a fantastic combo of murder mystery, armchair travel and food.

First warning: do not listen if you are hungry! Frequent mouthwatering descriptions of food!

Super cast of characters across the board - you'll feel like you could travel to Gravina, drop in at Sotto il Fico and see them all there: Nico, Pereillo, Daniele, Tilde, Stella, Gogol, Nellie. ! I am really looking forward to reading the next installment.

The narrator, Angelo Di Loreto, was superb. Beautiful, fluent pronunciations of the frequent Italian words and phrases, no hesitation at all, just a seamless performance that made the considerable authenticity come to life. I loved that his approach brought a suggestion of "hard boiled", which was appropriate to the fact that Nico is a former NYC cop.

The author herself is Italian-born and raised so the whole book rings with authenticity. Many touches of dry humor throughout.

A note to the uninitiated: as much as I loved this audiobook, for the rest of the series, I'll be reading the Kindle editions because for some baffling reason the producers got a different narrator for Books 2-4 who is absolutely dreadful - flat reading, constant and erratic mispronunciations of words, no ability to do even a suggestion of individual voices. Why they didn't keep Angelo Di Loreto on for the whole series is mind boggling! I feel bad for the author because a bad narrator can ruin a good book and so Books 2-4 have suffered poor ratings they don't deserve based on content alone. But don't let that stop you listening to di Loretta's super reading of this one as a way to get started on the series!

My only quibble (SPOILER ALERT- stop here if you don't want to know what the story hinges on) is the use of rape. I have begun to avoid books that rely on rape as the inciting incident, it's too hard to read about and imo it's so easy to use it that it becomes gratuitous. I know it happens constantly IRL but I don't need that in my chosen entertainment. That said, I think Trinchieri used it as sensitively as possible and once I found out that's what was involved, I did not stop listening. And I'm glad of that, because now I have a new series to get through!

Great descriptions of Italy and intrigue

Mystery was a good entry, and I like the details of the life in Italy. The narration, it was slightly monotone, but easy to get used to and appropriate to the accented Italian tongue.

Filled with descriptions of Italian food.

I read 2/3 of the book and it still hadn’t really caught my interest. The amount of descriptions of Italian dishes was similar to a cooking show. Very little info about the actual crime or clues as to who done it. I had to finally say ciao.

mystery and italian food and wine!

A delicious mystery! interesting characters and compelling story including a very smart dog and great food.

An Italian experience

A well worth listen. An Italian delight, and challenge, a well rounded escape into Italy.

Good story but…

Not a good listen. The narrator was not an appropriate voice for this story. The accents were all very wrong.

Food and Feel Good

The food descriptions gave this book an interesting twist.
Also, the Italian accents really added an ambience.
I highly recommend Murder in Chianti.

Get Me To Chianti

I really enjoyed this book as the story while building slowly was quite interesting. Additionally the performance was excellent and the food and wine descriptions enticing.

Great Sense of Place

Loved the characters and made me
Hungry for Italian food!! Perfect for an audiobook. Bravo!will read others in the series.

Good mystery and great narrator

We loved this story and all the local color. We have visited this part of Italy and the wine festival in Panzano. The characters and the food made us nostalgic for Italy. The narrator was great; his voices for the characters and the Italian pronunciation were very good. We have already begun the second book in the series and are disappointed by the reader in book two.