Nell Valenti is settling into her role of transforming the Villa Orlandini into a superb farm-to-table cooking school, and the time has finally come for a full taste test run. But when Chef Orlandini prepares to reveal his top secret marinara recipe for the first time to a group of American gastro-tourists, Nell realizes she might have bitten off more than she can chew.
Nell begins to suspect that one of the tourists is actually a private detective sent to spy on her by her overprotective father, and the fussy foodies are noisy and disrespectful from the very start of the Marinara Mysteriosa workshop. Even worse, when one visitor appears to be poisoned by the famous marinara recipe, Nell will have to work fast to uncover a killer and keep a lid on bad press before her fresh start is spoiled for good.
ASIN: B087PLF2V6
Publication date: January 26, 2021
Language: English
Print length: 300 pages
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The time has come for all of Nell Valenti's hard work to pay off. The inaugural class is due to Villa Orlandini soon, consisting of five American students. During the introductions, Chef Orlandini surprises everyone by indicating he will be revealing his secret marinara sauce to the class, Nell, and everyone else in the household is shocked. Nell also discovers her father sent another private eye to spy on her and is intent on calling her father out. Revealed secret marinara sauces and private eyes become back-burnered, the least of Villa Orlandini's worries, when one of the class members is poisoned. In a group full of suspicious characters, Nell must now figure out what and how the poisoning occurred and who is responsible, before their inaugural class becomes Villa Orlandini's only class.
Crime of the Ancient Marinara was an interesting story with likable characters and a believable mystery. Nell is a hard-working American trying to get a culinary school in Italy off the ground. She takes her job seriously, sometimes too seriously it seems. She's doing her best to learn the language and for only a month in, I think she's doing a fine job. Nell is written with realism and her interactions with everyone fit the way a professional in a less-than-perfect situation would act.
The mystery surrounding the poisoning of one of the attendees was well thought out. The suspects were plenty, even if unlikely and/or not plausible. The lead up to and reveal of the murderer, along with the means and motive, were plotted well and I wasn't sure who the culprit was until closer to the reveal. Nell's amateur investigation produced far-fetched theories and her snooping around was borderline illegal, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment.
The story itself was rather slow-paced and it took me a bit longer to read Crime of the Ancient Marinara that other books I've read lately. I still found the story interesting and engaging, with good character development and wonderful world building. I was able to visualize every element of the story including the mouth-watering recipes. I'm excited to see what happens at Villa Orlandini in the next book.
I was provided a copy of this book to read.
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