Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio (Tante Poldi #3)

Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio is the third Auntie Poldi mystery by Mario Giordano. Originally published in German in 2018, this English translation released Aug 4th 2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is 352 pages and available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book (and the first in the series) is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

The titular character, Isolde Oberreider, aka Poldi, has retired from film/tv (where she was a costumer) to Sicily to drink, soak up sun, enjoy seeing attractive men in uniform and live out her twilight years whilst solving the occasional murder. She's a beehive wig wearing (a la Winehouse), Maserati driving Venus of Willendorfian force of nature, cutting a wide swath through the Carabineri and the local mafioso alike. Her Watson is her nephew, who dutifully records her exploits and tries not to get run over whilst trying to write his own epic multi-generational historical novel in the style of James Michener. Between the scenes background is provided by three Italian aunties who serve as a Greek chorus for the narrative.

At 352 pages, it's a more substantial read than many contemporary procedurals or cozies. The length allowed the author to richly develop the setting and characters without suffering from book bloat at all.  The plotting was tight and the pacing was perfect and never dragged for me.

This is a really charming book with very appealing and sympathetic characters written with humor and heart.  I really cared about them.  It should be noted that there is a fair bit of double entendre, sly sexual asides, and fairly clean mentions of male genitalia in this book. The characters drink, swear, and some of them smoke cigarettes (and sometimes cannabis). The whole is exuberantly and warmly funny. There is some discussion of death and suicide in the book which could be triggering for some readers. 

Although originally released in German, the translation by John Brownjohn is seamless and nuanced and certainly doesn't seem to detract from story at all. Poldi is smart and funny, quirky and outspoken and I adore her. It doesn't read like a translated work. I generally prefer to read in the original language, but my German isn't up to the task, and this series depends so heavily on pacing and deftly sparkling narrative. I'm thankful the translator is up to the task.  I'm really looking forward to future installments (foreshadowed in the book, and already released in German and hopefully coming soon in translation). 

Four stars, really enjoyable read.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes