Words Can Kill (Ghostwriter Mystery Series) C.A. Larmer

The protagonist of the cozy mystery series Ghostwriter Mysteries is Roxy.  She authors books for other people, leaving her name off the cover, and leaving the fame to the name author, in exchange for a comfortable living.  Unfortunately adventure and mystery stalks mild-mannered wordsmith Roxy Parker, who is:

...the first to suspect foulplay in any situation.

Luckily Roxy is also an investigative journalist, so she is well-equipped to track down the truths and to resolve the mysteries.  Most of her stories occur in her native Australia, peppering the books in the series with wonderfully entertaining Aussie-isms (for non-Australians), dry humor, and stunning scenery.  However, book 5 in the series takes Roxy to the Italian Riviera for some equally stunning scenery.  

The author explains the change in scenery for Roxy:

My husband and I took our boys to Europe in 2013 and the Cinque Terre was one of our most cherished destinations.  We stayed in the heart of Riomaggiore for four days and loved every minute of it. While there I decided I just had to bring my protagonist Roxy Parker back.  It's such a magical place and I knew it would lend itself to a vibrant and colourful mystery.

Roxy's mystery is not just vibrant and colorful, it is mysterious and life-threatening for someone very close to her.  TIP:  Avoid the book's description if you want enjoy Words Can Kill to its fullest.  Paired with Caroline, a compatriot who is the complete opposite of Roxy, there are laughs and conflicts that lead both women to grow and groan along the way to resolving the mystery.

Along with the cozy fun, we get an accurate depiction of a ghostwriter's precarious career.  Part of the entertainment of this cozy series is that Roxy gets to change her scenery and associates quite often, at least with every new writing contract.  That keeps the stories fresh, and saves the population of her hometown from massacre, unlike the unlucky inhabitants of Jessica Fletcher's Cabot Cove (reference: TV's Murder She Wrote).

The books in the Ghostwriter Mystery Series to date are:

1. Killer Twist
2. A Plot to Die For
3. Last Writes
4. Dying Words
5. Words Can Kill
6. A Note Before Dying

The books are well-written, well-edited, and presented stylishly with eye-catching covers.  Each book can be read as a standalone book, but to understand the recurring characters' relationships it would be best to read the books in order.  The cozy elements are all there, including a possible love interest for Roxy, whose mother has decided:

You're destined for spinsterhood...

Be ready for some real pain and danger for Roxy's loved ones in Words Can Kill, in which the amateur sleuth's emotions are put through a wringer.  But trust that Roxy's dogged determination wins out in the end. 

The Italian scenery and characters enrich the book for any Italophile; two thirds of the book takes place in Italy.  We get good and bad guy Italians, an exciting finish, and a meaty Epilog in which all the loose ends are wrapped up for the reader.

From the book's description (spoilers):

WORDS CAN KILL is the fifth stand-alone mystery in the popular amateur women sleuths series featuring sassy ghostwriter Roxy Parker.

Fasten your seatbelts for a cozy mystery ride through Europe — but remember, this ain't no holiday.

Hunky photographer Max Farrell has just vanished into thin air, his last sighting in the arms of a blonde floozy at a Swiss mountain resort.  Max’s estranged girlfriend Roxy Parker pretends she doesn’t care but when his flatmate shows up murdered, bludgeoned by his own guitar, and then the floozy takes a dive off a cliff on the Italian Riviera, she must face the truth at last—Max’s life is hanging in the balance and she is his only hope.

Where is Max?
Who killed his Berlin flatmate?
And what the hell was he doing with that blonde in the first place!

In the latest Ghostwriter Mystery (each one a stand-alone story in itself), Roxy Parker packs her designer luggage and heads to Europe on a quest to find the man she wishes she didn’t love.  With his uber-trendy, self-absorbed sister, Caroline, by her side, Roxy must follow a series of tantalising clues that take them from the heights of Mt. Pilatus to the azure Mediterranean Sea encountering brash German police, secretive Swiss soldiers, and an Italian lothario to die for.

Here are direct links to all the books in the series at Amazon.com:

Please visit the author's website and blog.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.

Pepe & Poppy,Tarantella vs Zorba by Joe Novella

Pepe & Poppy is a romantic-comedy-coming-of-age story set in Melbourne, Australia, within the city's large Italian immigrant community.  Actually, Pepe and his brother Charlie, the first-person conversational narrator of the story, are hyphenated Italians, the first generation born in Australia.  Poppy, however, is from Melbourne's large Greek immigrant community, a first generation child, too.

Pepe and Poppy meet and fall in love.  Today, that would be less of an event.  However, in the early 1980s, where the book is set, this is akin to a tragedy for the two lovers' families.  Pepe's family's biggest worries are:

• Are they Catholic?
• Can she make pasta, pizza, lasagna?
• Can she prepare Italian coffee?
• What language and culture will the children learn?
• Would she be able to understand us?

 

 

Genovese Coffee and Vespa, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The author has his narrator not only tell the story, but explain to the reader the "realities" of being a Italian-Australian.  Here is his introduction to his family:

...let me let you in on a very important fact and that is Italians think themselves the best lovers, fighters and most cultured people on the face of the earth.  But what really makes them Italian is their love of family, closely followed by the home, the garden, their passion for celebrations and their desire to outdo all of their relatives.  My family was typical of Italian families in Australia in the eighties.

Desserts at Brunetti's, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

As the story progresses, the narrator lets us into what he learned from the events he relates in the book, about how similar Italian and Greek-Australians can be:

Italians and Greeks have uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents as far as the eye can see.  Back then family also meant paisanni -- anyone who grew up in the same town as your parents -- and those who baptized your kids, sponsored your confirmation and generally anyone who'd helped the family prosper.

The narrator tells us that his father came to Australia from Calabria, Italy, when he was a twelve-year-old boy, and build up his fortunes until he lived a comfortable life with his family.  A large part of that life was attending celebrations feted with homemade wine and food:  weddings, engagements, baptisms, first communions.

Gelato Van in St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia

The family speaks a Calabrese dialect, mixed with Australian English, just as Poppy's family speaks Greek mixed with Australian English.  Phrases in the languages are often written out in Pepe & Poppy, always with a translation, but not italicized. 

Let me just add a comment about Australian English for any non-Australian readers, and about the tone of this novel:  it can be a bit vulgar and crude, but it is rich with humor and a zest for life.  Some Aussie words might be unfamiliar, such as relos for relations, and bog-catcher for underpants, and chooks for chickens, but all the words are understandable in context.  There is also the frequent use of the word wog, a racially derogatory term that in Australia has been appropriated by those against whom it was used, to refer to themselves as a group.

Caffe Latte from Caffe Cartile in Melbourne's Block Arcade, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Pepe & Poppy is rich with humor, especially concerning the eccentricities of the families.  There are plenty of off-hand observations about Italians, like these:

...there's nothing scarier than silent Italians; it's unnatural.

Italians love emotional people.  If you're reserved you either have something to hide or you're just plain stupid.

The cultural references from the early eighties are fun, too; lots of nostalgia.  Pepe & Poppy has a cinematic structure, making it easy to imagine the book as a film.  It would make a colorful, goofy, romantic, nostalgic film.

Exterior of Luna Park Entrance Illuminated at Twilight, St. Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

In the end, Pepe & Poppy is a funny story about a cultural melting-pot.  In the background of the story is the suggestion that today's Australia is home to better-acculturated hyphenated Greeks and Italians, and that the Australian society is more appreciative of the best of Greek and Italian culture.

Here is the narrator commenting on the mixing of his family and his brother's fiancé's family, and why it works:

When an Italian marries a Greek, you get the union of two lots of people who believe themselves to be the creators of modern civilization...

Pepe & Poppy is well-written, well-constructed, well-edited, and very entertaining.  It transports you to another world, immerses you in it, and leaves you feeling better for it, in the end.  You can feel lots of love behind the words.  It is a love-story for Pepe and Poppy, but it is a coming-of-age story for Pepe's brother, Charlie.

From the book's description:

Pepe and Poppy is 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' meets 'The Wedding Singer'.  A heartwarming story of love and acceptance.  A true celebration of cultural diversity.  If you loved the 80's, if you come from a multicultural family, if you love to laugh, then this is the book for you.

It's 1983 in the multicultural city of Melbourne and the worlds of Italy and Greece are about to collide.  Giuseppe Allevoni, from good Italian stock, and Kaliopi Papadopoulos, a good Greek girl, fall in love and set in motion a culture clash that, while at times comical, threatens to tear the young lovers apart.

Set against the backdrop 80's fashion in a world of discos, home-grown tomatoes and pissing-angel fountains, Pepe & Poppy is a charming and heartwarming story about love and acceptance and the universal similarities between us all.

Never been to Melbourne, Australia?  Here is a one-minute-thirty-second video postcard of the city, the setting for the book:

The Pepe & Poppy e-book can be downloaded from Smashwords, a major on-line retailer of e-books, offering each book in various e-book formats, for instant download, with no extra fees for non-U.S. customers.

Direct link to Pepe & Poppy page at Smashwords

Pepe & Poppy is also available via Amazon.com in Kindle e-book and paperback editions.  Here are direct links to both:

Visit the author's website and Facebook page.

This review is by Candida Martinelli, of Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, and the author of the cozy-murder-mystery novel AN EXTRA VIRGIN PRESSING MURDER, and the young-adult/adult mystery novel series THE VIOLET STRANGE MYSTERIES the first book of which is VIOLET'S PROBLEM.