Murder in Tuscany by T A Williams
A remote retreat…
Nestled high in the Tuscan hills lies Villa Volpone, home to renowned crime writer Jonah Moore and his creative writing course. It’s also the last place retired DCI Dan Armstrong expected to spend his retirement! Dan’s no writer, but maybe this break will help him to think about the next chapter in his own life story?
A gruesome murder…
But only days into the course, Jonah Moore is found stabbed to death with his award-winning silver dagger! And Dan finds himself pulled out of retirement with a killer to catch.
Eleven possible suspects.
The other guests all seem shocked by Jonah’s death, but Dan knows that one of them must be lying. And as he and Italian Commissario Virgilio Pisano begin to investigate it quickly becomes clear that everyone at Villa Volpone has secrets to hide…
But can Dan discover who the murderer is before they strike again?
About the author
T A Williams is the author of over twenty bestselling romances for HQ and Canelo and is now turning his hand to cosy crime, set in his beloved Italy, for Boldwood. The series will introduce us to retired DCI Armstrong and his labradorOscar and the first book, entitled Murder in Tuscany, will be published in October 2022. Trevor lives in Devon with his Italian wife.
Review
‘Murder in Tuscany’ is a brilliant start to a very promising cosy series set in the rolling vineyards of Italy! I wasn't quite sure what I was going to make of this one since I'm a not a huge cosy reader, I like them more as a pick me up read. But I loved this one. Fell in love with the location, the protagonist and of course Oscar the dog! He reminded me very much of my crazy lab as he knocked me into Loch Lomond once. The pace was spot on, there was a great cast of characters and wow this book made me hungry. I'm now dreaming of DCI Dan Amstrong looking like Stanley Tucci on his culinary tour but with the added intrigue of murder!
Dan has just retired from the Met and has ambitions of being a writer. His colleagues clubbed together and booked him a two week creative writing course in the Tuscan Hills. Sounds like bliss but the course is for erotic fiction! He is persuaded to go and it's a mixed group who turn up as his fellow students - two older women who have multiple books already published, a few couples. The owner and leader of the course is a horrid Englishman who Dan decides is best avoided. However, when his body is found in suspicious circumstances Dan is asked to help by the local police as a translator. He soon finds out there is a lot to learn about the victim but also all his fellow residents!
I could feel the heat coming off the pages, the descriptions of the location were fantastic and I loved all the little nods to history that we're thrown into the narrative. I also loved that Dan was not a jaded cliche of an ex-copper, he was very self-aware and willing to embrace his feelings. Of course, his relationship with Oscar the resident dog was brilliant and the resolution of that was pitch-perfect. It did have elements of a locked room mystery which I thought was done especially well. Again like golden age crime, there was a roster of characters who all had something against the victim and their reasons were teased out slowly but surely by the author!
A great start to a series which is going to become one of my happy reads! Let me know if you read this one.
