Rating: 3/5
Review:
Slightly disappointing
I expected to enjoy this rather more than I did. It's not bad, but it could have done with a
good deal more focus and a good deal less background and self-conscious
quirkiness.
Aunti Poldi is a Bavarian woman who, at the age of about 60,
moves back to Sicily to be with
her sisters and drink herself to death.
However, a murder mystery and a handsome policeman begin to restore
her. Poldi herself is a real Character –
rather too much so, for my taste. Her
"characterful" behaviour became increasingly implausible and
eventually rather annoying at times.
Also, the story is slow. This
isn't necessarily a problem, but I found the long digressions into Sicilian
culture, customs, geology, history and so on got in the way quite badly; I
could really have done without several pages on the history of Sicilian sulphur
mining, for example. When the plot
finally comes to a head the climax is ridiculous, with a hopelessly implausible
Cornered Killer Climax From Which She Only Narrowly Escapes. I do realise that this isn't supposed to be
particularly realistic, but even making generous allowances for this, it was
pretty silly.
It's not a bad book and has it's moments of humour; some of
the characters are rather well drawn and we do get a strong sense of place,
even if it's overdone at times. However, I found it a bit of a slog and can
only give it a rather lukewarm recommendation.
This is the start of a series, but it's not a series I'll be rushing to
read., I'm afraid.
(I received an ARC via Netgalley.)
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