Crime of the Ancient Marinara by Stephanie Cole

Crime of the Ancient Marinara by Stephanie Cole ISBN-13: 9780593097816 Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Berkley Books Released: January 26th 2021

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
Nell Valenti is settling into her role of transforming the Villa Orlandini into a superb farm-to-table cooking school, and the time has finally come for a full taste test run. But when Chef Orlandini prepares to reveal his top secret marinara recipe for the first time to a group of American gastro-tourists, Nell realizes she might have bitten off more than she can chew.

Nell begins to suspect that one of the tourists is actually a private detective sent to spy on her by her overprotective father, and the fussy foodies are noisy and disrespectful from the very start of the Marinara Mysteriosa workshop. Even worse, when one visitor appears to be poisoned by the famous marinara recipe, Nell will have to work fast to uncover a killer and keep a lid on bad press before her fresh start is spoiled for good.


My Review:
Crime of the Ancient Marinara is a cozy mystery. This novel is the 2nd in the series, and this story didn't spoil the whodunit of the previous book. You don't need to read the previous novel to understand this one, but you may wonder why Nell likes Pete so much since he mainly acted stressed and jealous in this book.

Nell was often in awkward or mildly humorous situations (situational humor), but she didn't come across as incompetent. She felt like she had to solve the murder to save her job and the school. It was a clue-based mystery, and Nell poked around people's rooms and asked questions to find clues. Frankly, I thought whodunit was pretty obvious from the start, though there were two others who acted suspicious who also could've done it. I still don't like that Nell withholds evidence from the police. She could have taken a picture of the evidence for her own use rather than taking the original from the scene.

There were no sex scenes. There was occasional use of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting mystery.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.