Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano

I love ‘Cosy Euro Crime’, it’s the best of both worlds - it takes me to places I love to visit in the company of some real characters and it leaves me feeling good as opposed to either emotionally raw or just numb after reading some gruesome Scandi-Crime. Not that there isn’t a place for brutal, realistic crime set in the cold icy North. However, writing this review in the North of England during December, an escape, even a virtual one, to a hot Mediterranean island is just the ticket.

Auntie Poldi, the narrator’s German aunt, retires to Sicily to drink herself to death while enjoying a great sea view. Having said that, she’s much too energetic to pop her clogs just yet, and so entertains herself by investigating the murder of her young handyman and by falling head over heels in lust with the detective officially assigned to the case. Does Auntie Poldi manage to sober up long enough to solve the crime and seduce the detective?

The German novelist Mario Giordano, son of Italian immigrants, also writes fiction for young people and screen plays. This is his first crime book. Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions was published by John Murray in 2016 with a sensitive translation by John Brownjohn.  

(Indiana Brown)