Murder in Venice is the 13th Armstrong and Oscar cozy destination mystery by T.A. Williams. Released 3rd Nov. 2025 by Boldwood Books, it's 234 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, large print, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is currently included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free. The other books in the series are also currently available on KU.
This time, expat
former policeman Dan Armstrong and his trusty canine
sidekick Oscar are drawn into helping with a staged murder mystery night (scripted and harmless) and instead wind up in the middle of a deadly serious "game". Dan's ostensibly along to facilitate
translations in English for
the police and witnesses, but his insights are valuable and he and
Oscar are, as always, central to the story.
The plotting is solid and the dialogue and characterizations are well controlled and believable. The mystery, denouement, and resolution are self contained in this volume, so it works well enough as a standalone, but the writing and mystery are so well planned and executed, that it would make an excellent binge or buddy read.
It's not derivative at all, but it reminded me in a lot of good ways of Leon's exceptional Brunetti books as well as Walker's lovely Bruno, chief of police books. Fans of those authors will find a lot to enjoy here. The scenery, food, and setting are as much a character of the book as the actual people (and non-humans).
Four and a half stars. Highly recommended. It would be an excellent choice for public library acquisition, home library, or a long binge/buddy read.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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