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.