Jeanne
of the BPL is back
today with another treadmill books Guest Post. Yea! This one came out last
summer and the next one in the series drops on March 26, 2019.
Murder
on Memory Lake by J.D. Griffo
 |
| Large Print Paperback |
Alberta Scaglione is a feisty Italian grandmother
whose life has had its share of hard knocks.
Then, a miracle: her spinster
aunt dies and leaves her a fortune and a lovely house overlooking a lake. Alberta moves in and is enjoying the good
life—until she finds a body in the lake. And it’s not just any body—it belongs to Lucy
Agnostino, who tormented Alberta all through school and who, given a choice,
would probably have wanted to be murdered on Alberta’s lake just for spite.
But was it murder or an accidental drowning? Alberta
is convinced it was the latter, because Lucy is dressed in a navy blue suit, a
color she wouldn’t –well, be caught dead in.
I was quite taken with the book at the start. It is very funny, and I liked the idea of a
multigenerational cozy. Alberta’s
granddaughter, Jinx is a young reporter with a local paper who wants to get to
know her grandmother. Alberta and her
daughter, Jinx’s mother, became estranged years ago and Jinx grew up far from the
rest of the family. The investigative
quartet is rounded out with Alberta’s sister, Helen, a former nun with little
patience for foolishness, and Joyce, a sister in law who retired from
investment banking with a lot of money and a yen to become a painter.
The book is very Italian, with multiple characters
spouting Italian proverbs, much Italian food, quite a bit of Italian
attitude. It was a refreshing change
from the everyman sort of cozies I’ve been reading, where the stories are often
set in Anytown, USA. One running gag has
Jinx trying to update the family’s traditional and beloved dishes with healthy
alternatives, with little success. After
tasting a risotto made with couscous, Aunt Helen says it “tastes like the
Eucharist without any of the hope.” (Later, Helen complains about what Jinx is
wearing to a funeral home. Alberta says
that God must like fancy, because to look at some of the priests’ robes it’s as
if Liberace was leading mass. “If only
Jesus could just pack a house like Liberace used to do,” replies Helen.)
It was also a lot of fun to have mostly older main
characters who are lively, interesting, and determined. They also drink a lot of flavored vodka.
I’ll admit to a little bit of disappointment after
the opening pages. I was looking forward
to a strong contrast between a young woman and an older one, but at times I
found Alberta behaving more like the stereotypical young cozy heroine than the
older, savvier lady she seemed at first. That role is taken over by Helen, who
may be my favorite character. Joyce is
no slouch, either. I laughed a lot while reading this.
My only other nitpick was that at times the author
worked too hard to come up with synonyms for “said.” People comment, lecture, question, theorize,
state, disclose, translate—well, you get the idea. It wasn’t all through the
book, just a few passages.
If you like cozies, this is a very promising new
series. I’m certainly looking forward to the next in the Ferrara Family Mysteries, Murder
in Tranquility Park.
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