This book was a bit difficult to get into because its written from the narrator's perspective which makes it a little difficult to connect with the main character. It took a few chapters before I grew fond of Auntie Poldi since she was portrayed as very eccentric. Once I developed a stronger sense of who she was the story moved along at a somewhat slow pace but was interesting. Another difficulty was the use of Italian throughout with no translation and not enough context to fully understand the statements. I would stop reading to look up translations and that made the storyline feel disjointed. Thankfully, the overall mystery and how it is solved is very good and the characters are interesting so that helps to accept the issues that I had while reading. ( )

Ob mir das Buch als gelesenes Buch auch gefallen hätte, kann ich nicht sagen, aber als Hörbuch gefiel es mir ausnehmend gut. Der Sprecher Philipp Moog ist phantastisch, kein Wunder, dass das Buch den Deutschen Hörbuchpreis 2016 in der Kategorie "Beste Unterhaltung" gewonnen hat.
Inhaltlich ist es recht nett. Die etwa 60-jährige Münchnerin Poldi zieht nach Sizilien, in die Heimat ihres verstorbenen Mannes um sich zu Tode zu saufen - dieser Handlungsstrang, die Trinkerei, war etwas schwer zu verkraften. Aber insgesamt wird einem die Poldi im Laufe des Buches immer sympathischer und da ich auch eine Affinität zu Italien habe, genau wie zu München, mochte ich auch die ganze Geschichte. Die Metaphern haben gerade nicht die Grenze zum Unerträglichen überschritten und so war das ganze Buch ein Vergnügen. ( )

Gooddreads tells me I read this book four years ago; I sure don't remember it. I gave it two stars back then--which I rarely do--but this time I've bumped it up to three. Memorable characters for sure (though why the wig?). The mystery is simply a ploy to run the characters around: there's no way it's solvable. ( )

I bought this book one day, because I was busting for the bathroom and the Library was the closest public one; I felt a little bad about just going in to use the facilities, so I popped into the FOTL shop (again) and picked this one up.

Meh. It wasn't bad or great; it had it's moments, but while I liked the narrator (Aunti Poldi's nephew), and Poldi's sisters-in-law, I didn't really care for Aunt Poldi, probably because she was a drunk. The author attempts to make her desire to drink herself to death sound romantic, and–weirdly–funny, but it just comes across as: she's a bleeding drunk.

The mystery was good though; I didn't see the solution coming at all and it held my attention when the MC failed to.

I read this for space #19 as the cover is easily 50% blue. ( )

This was a silly romp of a murder mystery novel. People expecting a tightly plotted Ms. Marple style sleuthing might be disappointed, but I greatly enjoyed the adorable, overwhelming mess of a woman that is Auntie Poldi and the adorable, overwhelming mess of a novel that is this book. It gave me a big hankering for Sicilian food! ( )