Auntie Poldi and the Lost Madonna: A Novel
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

Nephew (last seen in Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio, 2020) is again summoned to Poldi's, where he finds a live-in sitar tutor and a newly hatched plan for Donna Poldina's Detective Agency. All told, it's not a bad idea: Poldi has solved three murders since she moved to Sicily a year ago. Business planning, however, is put on the back burner when Poldi is thrust into a dangerous Vatican mystery. A nun has died under suspicious circumstances after attending a bizarre exorcism where the possessed claimed to be Poldi. And, perhaps not coincidentally, the Vatican's treasured Black Madonna has suddenly disappeared. Pursued by a local mobster's thugs and dodging her imaginary friend, Death, Poldi pursues the nun's killer and the Madonna into a trap laid by her oldest nemesis. Poldi's devil-may-care attitude and Nephew's witty, self-deprecating narration are as entertaining as ever, but this series' fourth entry is anchored by Poldi's evolution as she faces both her future and her conflicted past.

In Giordano's exceptional fourth Auntie Poldi mystery (after 2020's Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio), 60-year-old Isolde "Poldi" Oberreiter, a Bavarian who has settled in Torre Archirafi, Sicily, sets aside her plan "to drink herself to death in comfort with a view of the sea" to investigate another crime--the death of a nun who fell from the roof of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace following the exorcism of a woman named Rosaria. When the priest asked Rosaria to renounce her demon, she spoke Bavarian German in Poldi's voice. While the plot, which involves the theft of a statue of a Black Madonna, is satisfyingly packed with danger and surprises, it's the digressions on Sicilian history, the Italian mentality, and Poldi's pronouncements on life and sex that provide readers with some laugh-out-loud moments as well as food for thought. Those who appreciate the intelligent silliness of S.J. Perelman will want to see more of the sexy, quick-witted Poldi, who won't take guff from any man, including the pope. (May)

Poldi proves again that although killing herself may not be the best idea, seaside Sicily is a great place to not do it. Auntie Poldi's plan to drink herself to death in sight of the sea having been foiled multiple times by her involvement in a series of juicy murder investigations, her nameless nephew thinks it may be safe to go off to Paris to join Valérie, the object of his sometimes-requited affections. When he returns in a funk because his would-be beloved is now back with her photographer ex-boyfriend, he finds everything topsy-turvy in Poldi's home in the Via Baronessa. Vito Montana, the virile policeman who occupies Poldi's ever lustful thoughts, is nowhere to be found. Instead, a sitar player named Ravi wanders the hallways mixing cleansing smoothies, and Poldi herself seems caught on the great wheel of karma. A tape surfaces that shows an Italian woman with Poldi's voice cursing in Bavarian at the priests who are trying to exorcise her demons. Then a young nun who'd attended the exorcism falls from a roof in the Vatican. When she sneaks into the Vatican to figure out what's happening, she manages to knock over a group of cardinals and get herself arrested. Her best friends back home in Torre Archirafi abandon her. The search for a missing statue of the Black Madonna beckons, but an authority even more powerful than the pope puts sex, drink, and sleuthing out of her reach. Poldi rebels as only Poldi can, and the results spiral to epic and profound heights only a manic genius could have imagined. When a heroine so fearless spars with karma, who can doubt the result? Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Nephew (last seen in Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio, 2020) is again summoned to Poldi's, where he finds a live-in sitar tutor and a newly hatched plan for Donna Poldina's Detective Agency. All told, it's not a bad idea: Poldi has solved three murders since she moved to Sicily a year ago. Business planning, however, is put on the back burner when Poldi is thrust into a dangerous Vatican mystery. A nun has died under suspicious circumstances after attending a bizarre exorcism where the possessed claimed to be Poldi. And, perhaps not coincidentally, the Vatican's treasured Black Madonna has suddenly disappeared. Pursued by a local mobster's thugs and dodging her imaginary friend, Death, Poldi pursues the nun's killer and the Madonna into a trap laid by her oldest nemesis. Poldi's devil-may-care attitude and Nephew's witty, self-deprecating narration are as entertaining as ever, but this series' fourth entry is anchored by Poldi's evolution as she faces both her future and her conflicted past. Copyright 2021 Booklist Reviews.

In Giordano's exceptional fourth Auntie Poldi mystery (after 2020's Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio), 60-year-old Isolde "Poldi" Oberreiter, a Bavarian who has settled in Torre Archirafi, Sicily, sets aside her plan "to drink herself to death in comfort with a view of the sea" to investigate another crime—the death of a nun who fell from the roof of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace following the exorcism of a woman named Rosaria. When the priest asked Rosaria to renounce her demon, she spoke Bavarian German in Poldi's voice. While the plot, which involves the theft of a statue of a Black Madonna, is satisfyingly packed with danger and surprises, it's the digressions on Sicilian history, the Italian mentality, and Poldi's pronouncements on life and sex that provide readers with some laugh-out-loud moments as well as food for thought. Those who appreciate the intelligent silliness of S.J. Perelman will want to see more of the sexy, quick-witted Poldi, who won't take guff from any man, including the pope. (May)