Murder in an Italian Cafe

Michael Falco’s novels are a bit like War and Peace, if Tolstoy wrote cozies set on the Amalfi coast. They are big and sprawling, as rich with characters—most family, many returnees—as they are rich in plot. But at the center of the book stands Bria Bartolucci, the young widow and mother who moved to Positano to open a B&B, now a great success. But bad things still happen, and when a famous chef is murdered—poisoned!—while filming a cooking show, it’s Bria who is right next to him. From there we are off and running as Bria attempts to solve who murdered the chef—an endeavor that is wrapped up in a series of smaller mysteries, likely suspects, and red herrings—without getting killed herself. Come for the mystery, but stay for the wonderful humor and the familial love. Some diversity—doesn’t every family have at least one queer cousin?—would go far in making the series more credible.