Eve Angelotta was a dancer who after an injury returned to her hometown to work at the family restaurant with her somewhat forceful grandmother (Nonna). However, when Eve discovers a body (later identified as her Nonna's boyfriend) in the restaurant's kitchen and all signs point to Nonna as the murderer, Eve has to take charge and save Nonna and the family business.

This was a fun read with the Italian flavor both in food and family! ( )

I’ve read many mysteries with women who step out of their usual roles to try to solve a murder. I’ve read many with quirky characters. I rarely read one that makes me laugh out loud. YOU CANNOLI DIE ONCE is the rare one that is also genuinely funny.
Eve Angelotta was a Broadway dancer who fell off the stage during Step in Time in “Mary Poppins” and broke her leg in two places. While she still loves dancing, she returned to her Quaker Hills Pennsylvania home to become the chef of her grandmother’s Italian restaurant, Miracolo. Being from Northern Italy, her grandmother, Maria Pia, would not allow Eve to serve cannoli. (Eve’s recipe is at the end of the book.)
One morning, she opened up to begin preparing for the day’s crowd and discovered a body on the kitchen floor. She did not know the victim but rather quickly the police determined he was Arlen Mather, a man her still-beautiful 76-year-old grandmother had been seeing. Maria Pia became the main suspect. Though she (“not the kind of grandmother who makes brownies and sells crap on eBay) could be difficult, no one believed would ever kill someone. Eve enlisted other staff members as well as a couple outside people to help find the killer.
Robberies in the neighborhood is a subplot.
There are some red herrings and more than one character is not who people think he/she is leading to some genuine surprises.
Shelley Costa presents a lively vision of life in Miracolo complete with the daily musical entertainment and some of the other people and businesses (she calls their main competitor, a restaurant offering a French menu as Full of Crêpe). There were a lot of characters, each playing a necessary part in the story but not as fully developed as they might be in future stories. Costa presents a description of four of the main characters and their part in the story at the very beginning of the book.
The book contains some interesting observations, wit, and wordplay: During one of Maria Pia’s convoluted conversations, Eve realizes “I have a full understanding of the Roman Empire: they finally heard themselves.” When Eva called one of her suppliers, the woman responded, “Goody gumdrops.” “Some people might think that was sarcasm. I, on the other hand, knew it was.”
YOU CANNOLI DIE ONCE was a very entertaining twist on a frequent theme.
P.S. I have seen Sutton Foster in Anything Goes and both she and the closing number of Act I are amazing. ( )