Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions is the first in a series of murder mysteries by Mario Giordano.  The story is related to the reader by Auntie Poldi’s nephew who is staying with her while he writes, or attempts to write, a book.

The main character, Auntie Poldi, is an eccentric sixty year old German that has recently arrived in Sicily, after the death of her husband, to retire and be near family. Her only goal seems to be to drink herself to death. That is until Valentino Candela, a young man who does odd jobs for her, fails to show up one day to fix her leaky roof.  Unfortunately, Poldi is the one to find him dead, of a gunshot to the head, a few days later. On the spot, she vows to him that she WILL find his killer.

Poldi starts in on her own investigation despite warnings to the contrary from her family and the lead detective on the case, Vito Montana. She even swears off drinking till the case is solved. As Poldi puts it — she has to have a clear head.  She will stop at nothing to solve this crime, before the police, even after her life is threatened.

The story reads like a cozy mystery even though it was not billed as such. The best thing about the book is Poldi, she is irresistible. She has such an in-your-face, quirky personality that I adored. I also loved her loyalty to Valentino and her tenacity to find the killer.  In some respects, Poldi reminded me of Jessica Fletcher in the TV series Murder She Wrote.  Loyalty for sure is something they both have in common; but, it is the perceptiveness of both characters I found to be the strongest trait they share. It does not hurt that they are both older women turned amateur sleuth.

There is plenty of action and plot twists to keep the reader engaged. In addition, it was not a hard task to figure out who the killer was, so I am guessing that the author intended the reader to know this information.  Despite this fact, there were still a few surprises that I did not expect. This made the story more interesting and engaging.

Overall, this is a solid beginning to a series. I am actually looking forward to the next installment. I recommend this book to all those readers who like mysteries and cozy mysteries.

I received an ARC from the publisher, via Library Thing’s Early Reviewers program, in exchange for my honest opinion.