I think I come back to this series because Auntie Poldi is such a unique character. She’s a somewhat elderly German woman living in Sicily, she keeps a scrapbook of photos of handsome traffic cops, she has a stream of men through her bedroom (but really only a heart for Vito Montana), and she has a black wig that never seems to be attached very well. In Auntie Poldi and the Handsome Antonio, we learn more about Poldi’s mysterious background–and it’s just as odd as the rest.

Who would have guessed that she had a Tanzanian husband–one who is a detective, just like Vito Montana? And now he’s in Sicily, asking for her help. The plots of these books are bananas, and yet, while I’m reading them, I find them–and Auntie Poldi–entirely plausible. I don’t like the bits where her nephew, the narrator, starts talking about the epic novel he’s writing, but now I just skip those parts. I get why the author used that as a plot device in the first book, but I’d like him to find a way to jettison that now. If you’re looking for something original and definitely silly, pick this one up. Mario Giordano just came out with a new one this summer, Auntie Poldi and the Lost Madonna, and I’m sure I’ll read that one as well.