Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio: Auntie Poldi 3

Description

All the beloved, irascible Auntie Poldi wanted from her Sicilian retirement was time to enjoy sunshine, a free-flowing supply of wine, and a sultry romance with Chief Inspector Montana. But then her idyll is rudely disrupted by the last person she wants to see on her doorstep - John Owenya, detective inspector with the Tanzanian Ministry of Home Affairs, who is also her estranged, lying cheat of a husband. Not only is John's sudden reappearance putting a kink in Poldi's dreamy love affair with Vito Montana, but his presence also comes with a plea for help - and unwanted clashes with Mafia. Where is John's half-brother? What is the ten-million-dollar 'it' that John's brother was last seen with that has both the Sicilian and Tanzanian mobs in a frenzy? With only a postcard that has a phone number and a name, 'Handsome Antonio', on the back, Auntie Poldi hops begrudgingly (albeit with a great deal of gumption and panache) back into the saddle (in this case, an immaculate red Maserati Cabrio from the 80s with cream leather upholstery). The faster she finds Handsome Antonio, the sooner she can get John Owenya out of her hair and love-life. But the people Poldi discovers along the way may very well knock her immaculate wig askew.

Mario Giordano, the son of Italian immigrants, was born in Munich in 1963 and studied psychology at the University of Dusseldorf. He writes novels, books for adolescents, and screenplays. He lives in Cologne. Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio is his third novel to be translated into English.

Cross Alexander McCall Smith with Janet Evanovich, add a sensuously imagined Sicilian setting and an exuberant narrator, and you get the feel of Mario Giordano's Auntie Poldi detective books - The Times Giordano is a novelist of high skill and originality with an eye for eccentric comedy, idiosyncratic characters and vivid scenes - TLS