The Bitter Taste of Murder

March 1, 2021

In multi-award-winning Andrews's Murder Most Fowl, Meg Langslow's husband is directing a production of Macbeth even as gung-ho reenactors erect an authentic medieval Scottish military camp nearby, which ends in the murder of the unpleasant filmmaker documenting the reenactment (40,000-copy first printing). A BAFTA and multiple mystery award winner, novelist/filmmaker Claudel limns the current refugee crisis, with the inhabitants of backwater Dog Island refusing to disrupt their age-old way of life when three unidentified bodies wash ashore, deciding instead to bury them. In Edgar Award winner Hirahara's 1944-set Clark and Division, 20-year-old Aki, who has moved with her parents to Chicago after their release from the Manzanar concentration camp in California, refuses to believe that her sister Rose's death is a suicide. Lightning Strike, a prequel to Krueger's "Cork O'Connor" series, features Cork's coming-of age in small-town 1963 Minnesota. In Muller's Ice and Stone, durable PI Sharon McCone is enlisted by the organization Crimes Against Indigenous Sisters when two more Indigenous women are brutally dispatched in what the police refuse to regard as a pattern (25,000-copy first printing). The Madness of Crowds, the next in Penny's sensational "Chief Inspector Gamache" series, sends the chief inspector home to Three Pines, Canada, after a sojourn in Paris. Following Trinchieri's well-received debut, Murder in Chianti, The Bitter Taste of Murder finds former NYPD Nico Doyle comfortably settled in his late wife's Tuscan hometown--until the ruthless wine critic who's just arrived is murdered.

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June 7, 2021
In Trinchieri’s savory sequel to 2020’s Murder in Chianti, former Bronx homicide detective Nico Doyle, who has been living in his late wife’s hometown of Gravigna, Italy, for the past year, investigates the death of unpopular wine critic Michele Mantelli, who lost control of his car and plunged down a ravine. An autopsy report suggests Mantelli was probably dead before he ran off the road, a victim of methanol poisoning. It appears someone spiked his whiskey with wood ethanol. Maresciallo Salvatore Perillo and his brigadier, Daniele Donato, help sort out the many suspects, who include the victim’s soon-to-be ex-wife, an irate husband who threatened to kill him, several vintners, and Nico’s landlord. Meanwhile, Nico tests recipes at Sotto Il Fico, his wife’s relatives’ restaurant, where he enjoys seven-layer eggplant, zucchini lasagne, almond biscotti, and other treats. Though the mouthwatering cuisine at times distracts from the detective work, Trinchieri generally does a good job balancing food with folly as the action builds to an unexpected but satisfying solution. Fans of Martin Walker’s Bruno Courrèges series should take note.

June 15, 2021
Scandal and murder rock a rustic Italian town. Luckily, a Big Apple sleuth is there to set things right. After decades as a homicide detective in the Bronx, Nico Doyle is carving out a new life in the idyllic village of Gravigna in the Chianti hills of Tuscany. The latest gossip at Bar All'Angolo, where Nico regularly breakfasts with a group of villagers, revolves around arrogant wine critic Michele Mantelli, who raised local hackles by leaving his Jaguar parked in the middle of the piazza. Nico witnesses Mantelli in action later at Sotto Il Fico, the restaurant belonging to his late wife's cousin. Mantelli tells the staff to stop buying the inferior wines of Aldo Ferri, who also happens to be Nico's landlord and friend. Is this the trigger for the very public fight between Aldo and Mantelli that follows? Or is it the rumor that Mantelli's having an affair with Aldo's wife, Cinzia? When Mantelli's car goes off a cliff in a suspicious accident, Aldo immediately becomes the prime suspect in what's ruled a murder. Nico goes back to his detective roots to exonerate his friend. Trinchieri portrays Nico's recovery from grief with care; his wife, Rita, is recalled frequently as Nico and OneWag, the dog he adopted during his first Italian case, burrow more deeply into the relaxed life of the village. Nico's greatest challenge becomes distinguishing between truth and gossip, of which there is no shortage. A second death, at first ruled a suicide, leads the experienced Nico to the killer. Death toll aside, readers will want to stay in Trinchieri's charming village as long as possible.

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August 20, 2021
Former NYPD homicide detective Nico Doyle has resettled in his late wife's hometown of Gravigna, Tuscany, filling his days with work in the family restaurant and solving the occasional murder. In this follow-up to Murder in Chianti (2020), renowned wine critic Michele Mantelli sweeps into the village, pressuring Nico's relatives to order his endorsed wines and creating a stir when local winemaker Aldo Ferri publicly warns him to stay away from his wife, or else. Days later, Mantelli is dead, and his autopsy reveals that he was poisoned. When Perillo, the local carabiniere marshal, is forced to arrest Aldo, Nico promises Aldo to help prove his innocence. Wielding sharp observations and skilled interviews, Nico reveals both tragedy and malevolence in Mantelli's world, from the critic's bitter ex-wife to his troubled new girlfriend, the groundskeeper he betrayed, and a handful of vintners he extorted. Nico's investigations are accompanied by full-sensory descriptions of Italian dishes and warm snapshots of Tuscan village life, making Trinchieri's latest well-crafted mystery should be recommended to readers craving a change of scenery, with likable characters for company.

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