Of Masques and Murder: An Italian-American Culinary Cozy Mystery

About Of Masques and Murder: An Italian-American Culinary Cozy Mystery

"Superbly developed characters....[with] an Agatha Christie-style reveal. You'll be drooling over the food descriptions."

(Cinnamon & Sugar & a Little Bit of Murder blog)In the charming Italian-American town of Acorn Hollow, the festivities of Carnevale are in full swing: masked balls, lively processions, and decadent Italian treats like lasagna, sanguinaccio, and bomboloni. But Rita Calabrese, the town’s sharp-witted, food-loving matriarch-turned-journalist, is bored and restless: there is no crime to solve, nothing to write about, and—worse yet—she has taken a hasty and ill-advised Lenten resolution to stop interfering in (or, as she would say, “improving”) the lives of others. But Rita’s Lenten resolution is sorely tested when her twin sister is blackmailed for a scandalous indiscretion, and an obnoxious houseguest refuses to leave until Rita helps him win back his estranged wife.

So when a friend’s wine is poisoned at a masquerade ball and a local vintner’s glamorous fiancée is murdered, Rita bows to the inevitable and dives into an investigation rife with suspects and riven by romantic entanglements and family secrets.