Double Murder at the Grand Hotel Miramare by Elena Martignoni and Michela Martignoni
Publisher: Kazabo Publishing
Genre: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeEver since his punitive transfer to Lungariva, the sleepy village has quickly become the Cabot Cove of the Italian Riviera…
This time, Deputy Assistant Chief of Police Luigi Berté has to investigate a double murder in the Grand Hotel Miramare, Lungariva’s historic luxury hotel, playground for old nobility, international business tycoons, and polo players. But one of the guests is not what they seem and Berté has to work quickly before his suspects scatter to the four corners of the earth – with deadly results.
Set in the very real Grand Hotel Miramare in the village of Santa Margherita Ligure, this novel features Luigi Berté, one of the best-known characters in modern Italian fiction.
Appearing in a dozen murder mysteries and counting, Berté, a truly unique Italian creation, is beloved for his quirky approach to solving crimes, his kibitzing conscience, and his love for good food.
Small towns aren’t always quiet, safe places to live.
One of the things I enjoyed the most while I read this was comparing the small towns I grew up in with Lungariva. On the surface, they were all sleepy, peaceful communities, but first impressions aren’t always accurate. I smiled and nodded along as I realized how complicated some of the relationships there were. Living alongside the same core group of people for years on end can add all sorts of layers to how people are connected to one another. A relative might also be an employer, and a neighbor might be a friend one year and an enemy the next. The author captured these complexities nicely, so pay close attention if you have any experience at all living in rural areas.
This book had a large cast of characters that I struggled to keep up with even though I made a list of everyone who was introduced and how they were connected to the protagonist. There were simply so many characters that most of them didn’t get much time to express things like quirky personality traits or unusual interests that would have jogged my memory when I was trying to figure out who they were. As interested as I was in the mystery itself, this did prompt me to go for a three-star rating.
The pacing was strong and steady. What made this even better was that a lot of the plot development happened through various conversations Luigi Berté had with hotel staff, guests, and other people who spent a lot of time near the deceased. This is not an easy thing to pull off, so I wanted to make note of the author’s accomplishment here. He did a good job with what can sometimes be a tricky method of revealing new information to the readers.
Double Murder at the Grand Hotel Miramare kept me guessing.
