I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I immediately requested this one I read the description--a cozy mystery set on an island off the coast of Naples with an Italian grandmother as the sleuth? Yes, please!

A good cozy mystery has a strong sense of place and a likeable (or, at least, intriguing) cast of characters inhabiting that place; Lorenzo Carcaterra delivers both here, and it was gratifying to read how well Nonna Maria knows all of the townsfolk of Ischia--in addition to some notable characters who live further away. Personally, I'm also a fan of cozy mysteries with delectable descriptions of food, and Nonna Maria makes plenty of mouthwatering dishes for everyone (but somehow subsists on wine and coffee; no one, including the reader, sees her eat throughout the whole book). The mysteries (yes, there are two) wrap up neatly--perhaps, one might complain, too neatly--but there's a sharp cliffhanger in the last chapter that teases the next book in the series.

I mistakenly didn't realize that this is the second book in the series, but it works well as a standalone. Guess I'll have to go back and read the first one now!

Nonna Maria and the Case of the Stolen Necklace is a charming whodunit with a very smart amateur detective!

Nonna Maria lives on the island of Ischia in Italy, where she cooks and bakes and takes care of not only her family, but many other residents of the island as well. Her range of influence goes further, though, into all parts of Italy, as she is one of those people who everyone knows, and earns people's love and respect by doing the right thing (at least most of the time).

There are two cases occupying her time. One is the case mentioned in the title, a necklace that has been reported stolen from Grand Hotel Excelsior. Arianna Conte insists that the maid must have taken it, but, unknown to her, the maid is Nonna Maria's goddaughter, and Nonna Maria isn't going to let her be blamed for something she didn't do.

The second case involves a dead body. Nonna Maria is fairly sure she knows who the dead body is, and if she knows that, she also knows why she was killed and who did it. Nonna Maria feels guilt about her death because she knows that there was something she could have done years ago that might have prevented this death.

This book focuses on the solving of these cases, but it also focuses on Nonna Maria and the other residents of Ischia. I enjoy mysteries that expose the minutiae of daily life in a new place, like this small island in Italy. I had to get used to the rhythm and structure of how this story was told, because it is different from other cozy mysteries. The third-person structure separates you from the character in some ways, but it still makes for a good story.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.

This is 2nd in series and my first to read, but it was somewhat easy to follow.

Nonna Maria is an octogenarian living on her beloved island of Ischia near Naples. She is a local legend, a friend to all and helps solve the occasional crime.

There are actually two crimes/mysteries here. Her goddaughter, a hotel maid, is accused of stealing a guest’s valuable necklace, and a native woman returns to the island decades later following a scandal and ends up murdered.

I liked this one to a point, but did have some frustration with it. Nonna Maria is almost too perfect and appears to solve cases effortlessly with the help of her legions of friends and family. I felt she needed a little more “sauciness” to make things more interesting/humorous. And how she has time to cook elaborate 4-course meals most every day for others (since I don’t think she eats much at all…I’m serious) is a mystery in itself. While I enjoyed the island descriptions and the close camaraderie of its natives, it was a bit hard to keep the names of her friends/family straight, and as far as the mysteries, nothing earth shattering there. The writing felt too simplistic, and the exchanges between characters too formal. Unfortunately it just wasn’t that compelling to me.

My thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for providing the free early arc for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

This book takes cozy to a whole new level, with an octagenarian sleuth who just lets everything flow around her as she taps into all the skills and knowledge of the people her life of caring for and helping others has connected her to. Nonna Maria lives in a little island town that is a world unto itself, calm and contained even as the throngs of tourists descend on it during the summer months.
This volume has two completely unrelated cases for Nonna Maria to work on that have very different things at stake. One is a robbery that sees her goddaughter accused of a theft she did not commit, and the other is the murder of a woman no one seems to want to recognize. The very different cases make the jumps between scenes that deal with each a bit hard to keep up with, but both cases make for some fascinating reading.
My one nitpick would be that Nona Maria's peculiarities are interesting when mentioned once, but almost every person she talks to brings them up and that gets tiresome. It's like Carcaterra is constantly pointing out how peculiar and special her character is and is worried readers might miss that very obvious fact. Not a make-or-break element, but one I would have liked to see less of.
Overall, it's a slow-moving mystery that matches the pace and feel of the small island it's set in.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for the cozy read!

This turned out to be the second story set on the island of Ischia, as Nonna Maria, in her seventies, works with police Captain Murino to solve not one but two mysteries, one a stolen necklace, and one a murder. But I didn't feel I had missed anything not having read the first.

The author weaves the past as well as the present through snippets from various POVs, with Nonna Maria at the center, helping her friends to solve both crimes. We mostly see Nonna Maria from the outside, her decided likes and dislikes, as the book progresses. Everyone talks to her, is the key to her mystery solving. That, and her ability to see past surfaces, and to make connections between what might seem like coincidence.

I enjoyed the friendship between Nonna Maria and police Captain Murino. Both had respect for each other, and they listened to each other, which was a refreshing change from mysteries that depict old women as fussy and interfering. The reader knows fairly swiftly what's going on with the necklace; the murder takes more time, but while that unravels there are delicious descriptions of food, and a beautifully conveyed sense of life on a Mediterranean island.

3.5