Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions

First of a proposed series by Mario Giordano, son of Italian immigrants and raised in Munich; this is the first of his novels to be translated into English--by John Brownjohn from German. The story features Auntie Poldi (Isolde Oberreiter) but is told in the voice of her nephew, a struggling writer. Poldi's father, a German detective inspector in Munich, has left her with a craving for "the hunt." When she retires to Sicily at age 60, to be near her deceased husband's sisters, she expects a quiet life of wine, nosy relatives, and good food. Instead she finds a mystery when her handsome young handyman, Valentino, is murdered. She cannot seem to sit still and wait for the police investigation, headed by the handsome Commisario Vito Montana, to find the culprit, so she does her own sleuthing and nearly gets killed in the process. This is a light and entertaining book, rather like an Italian cosy. You do get a loving description of Sicily along with several colorful characters. Kirkus offers a highly favorable review as does Publishers Weekly.