Review: Murder at the Leaning Tower

Murder at the Leaning Tower by T.A. Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Former Metropolitan Police DCI Dan Armstrong moved to Italy after his wife left him and he retired. Now he lives just outside Florence and has carved out a niche for himself as a private detective, alongside his Labrador Oscar.

Dan is approached in a very cloak-and-dagger way by a young man, his boss is hosting a meeting with some very influential and wealthy people at a villa outside Pisa and they want Dan to provide security - of the not-being-bugged kind rather than the black suit and sunglasses variety. Anyway, after assuring himself that there is nothing shady going on, Dan agrees, only to discover that his girlfriend Anna's grown-up daughter Virginia will also be at the meeting, as assistant to one of the guests. Virginia has already said she doesn't want to meet Dan when she visits Anna so this could be very awkward!

When Virginia's handsy boss is found on the first morning, murdered in his bed by one of the antique daggers that are on display in the villa there is no shortage of suspects, almost all the other guests seemed shocked and or horrified when they saw him arrive. The local police detective thinks he's a New York homicide detective and likes to throw his weight around first arresting one person then another for no very good reason, but when he arrests Virginia Dan knows he has to find the real killer.

In one of the other books I thought everything got way too complicated, there appeared to be multiple murderers in a tit-for-tat series of murders. This time things are much more straightforward, and I am pleased that the motive wasn't handed to Dan by his friend in the Met Police.

Overall, you know where you are with these books. Cosy retired copper and his trusty dog solve mysteries against the backdrop of the gorgeous Italian countryside, with copious luscious descriptions of delicious-sounding food.

Also available on Kindle Unlimited.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

View all my reviews