Review: Murder at the Ponte Vecchio

Murder at the Ponte Vecchio by T.A. Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this might be the best one yet.

Dan is riding high professionally, when he is called in to assist the Italian police talk to the family of an elderly jeweller found hanged from the Ponte Vecchio. His family are Dutch and speak fluent English but no Italian. Although initially thought to be suicide the post-mortem shows it was murder.

Meanwhile the Mayor, also a writer, has asked Dan to investigate his daughter's boyfriend. They've been dating for a while but, unlike her previous boyfriends, she hasn't introduced him to her parents or even divulged his name.

Finally, Dan old friend Virgilio is acting distracted, his wife Lina, Dan's assistant is concerned and asks Dan if he can winkle out what is troubling him.

I'd say there are lots of red herrings, but actually there is just speculation (as with any mystery) about various characters' possible motives which get discounted over time.

I loved it - my only gripe is that the food descriptions weren't quite as delectable as usual.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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Review: Road-Tripped

Road-Tripped by Nicole Archer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Two and a half stars.

This (for me) was just a bit of too many tropes. Callie Murphy has moved to New York with just the clothes on her back after she caught her manipulative and mentally abusive ex-fiancé, who was also her boss, in bed with what she 'thought' was her best friend. Callie now works for her trust-fund friend writing advertising copy. Part of reinventing herself has involved a fierce hair cut, dying her blonde hair black and radiating attitude at full blast.

Walker Rhodes is an aspiring photographer, growing up in the South he was the small, goofy-looking kid with glasses and so his personality still remains that sweet, kind aspect even though he now looks like a Greek god and his Southern manners mean that he responds kindly when women fawn all over him.

Based entirely on adding two plus two and coming up with twenty-two, Callie decides that Walker has slept with every single woman at the agency and she is determined not to fall for his charms.

Then Callie's friend tells her the agency is on a knife's edge and he had arranged a great sponsorship deal with a RV manufacturer, a couple touring the US blogging and shooting adverts as they go, unfortunately the couple have had to pull out as the woman has terrible morning sickness and so he has asked Callie and Walker to take their places - if they don't the agency will fold!

So, we have enemies to love and road-trip. But Callie has a twin sister who is a drug addict, their parents cared nothing for them and were borderline abusive.

Throw in a dog, and a doting grandmother with cancer, and Walker's parents were also absentee, and a birthday, and a miscarriage, and a suspected pregnancy, and a nudist camping site, and a famous photographer and it all gets a bit much.

I could have lived with that, but Callie is the sort of FMC who holds strong to her beliefs no matter what evidence she receives to show her it is wrong - wonder where we've seen that recently? She assumes because Walker winks at a few women and sees a woman follow him into the men's bathroom that he is a womaniser. She spends months on the road with him 24/7 and still believes it. He explains her misunderstanding with another co-worker (yes I get there are a lot of coincidences) to her satisfaction and she still believes it. His grandmother says they are on love with each other and she still believes it. I just wanted to pick her up and shake her.

Similarly, Walker is all sweetness and light, he knows Callie's first instinct is always flight, but yet on more than one occasion he just storms off hence aggravating the situation.

Finally, the smexy scenes and dirty talk were more cringeworthy than hot.




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