Mystery
writer Victoria Rienzi has sent her fictional detective Bernardo
Vitali on an extended vacation. She is leaving New York to
return to her roots in Oceanside Park, NJ. There she plans
to write a historical novel based on her family’s history.
Plus she hopes to finally learn how to make her Nonna’s
legendary marinara sauce. She will waitress by day at the
70+ year old family restaurant, Casa Lido, and write when
she can fit it in. Nonna was not happy with her long absence
and has given her the jobs she hates to do including ironing
the napkins and planting flats of tomatoes in the back garden.
To top it off no one told her that the new sous chef just
happens to be Vic’s old boyfriend, Tim Trouvare.
The restaurant
is closed for lunch the next day due to a rally being held
in the Casa Lido’s parking lot. The rally is to protest
the filming of a new RealTV reality show - The Jersey Side.
This is a family town and the protesters do not want the show
to disrupt the area. The producer, Gio Parisi, is there with
several of his stars scouting locations and signing autographs.
After the protesters have gone the restaurant gets its first
customer of the day – Gio Parisi. He doesn’t care
about the restaurant being closed – he just wants what
he wants…now. To get rid of Gio before Nonna shows up
– Vic gets Tim to make him a salad and grilled chicken.
Gio also insults the restaurant and implies that he will have
one of his stars speak badly about Casa Lido and they will
lose business. Vic was glad when he finally left and goes
to plant the tomatoes. After planting about a row of the tomatoes
– she spies a shoe near the shed and goes to check it
out.
The shoe
is attached to the body of Gio Parisi. He is lying in his
own vomit. Vic had better be very careful trying to solve
this murder, she wouldn’t want to end up fried.
Things
to ponder: How and why did Gio die? Will Nonna and Vic reconcile
so that Vic will learn to cook? Will Vic ever write her new
novel or will sky-rocketing sales of her Bernardo Vitali mysteries
cause her to bring him back to work?
What
a great beginning to a new series. Love the characters and
especially the setting of the series. I found it impossible
to put down. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep
you guessing. It was a fun, fast-paced read. I hope that Rosie
is busy planning and plotting more books in the series as
I am already craving a second helping. The author has also
included some recipes in the delightful book. So if you like
your mystery down the shore, then you should be reading Murder
and Marinara. The next book in the series, The Wedding
Soup Murder will be out summer of 2014.
Reviews
of other titles in this series
Murder
and Marinara #1
The
Wedding Soup Murder #2
|
