2. Band der Serie und dafür ganz ordentlich. Der Charme des ersten Teils bleibt größtenteils erhalten. Bißchen lange Erzählung des Buchs des Neffen. Das unterbricht den Lesefluss. ( )

The second volume of the Auntie Poldi series was also an amusing read. It is definitely the case that the story lives with Poldi's Bavarian slang, which can hardly be translated into another language without losing its wit.
Poldi goes astray and gets involved with a winemaker. After she wakes up the next morning with a hangover, she finds the body of a fortune teller that she had spoken the evening before. Why did this woman have to die? Poldi begins to investigate in her unorthodox way and is always in great danger. Since her relationship with Commissioner Vito Montana is rather on hold, she cannot always count on his help. Poldi soon realizes that the rights of large water resources are at stake. Exposing the wrongdoer is rather difficult. ( )

Get your passport ready, because you’ll want to book a flight to Sicily after reading this book. Auntie Poldi and the Vineyards of Etna is easily one of the funniest books I’ve read recently. Cheers to Mario Giordano for making me laugh, and cheers also to John Brownjohn for a warm and humorous translation. Reading this book was fun. Here’s a few reasons why:

Auntie Poldi
She’s a name-dropper (she claims to have been buddies with Cher, among other celebrities) and a busy-body who meddles in her nephew’s attempts to write “proper literature.” She relates the tale of her investigation to her nephew in fits and starts, always maintaining her proper role as heroine, and brushes aside any of his irrelevant doubts as to its veracity. After she solves her handyman’s murder (in the first book of the series), she becomes a local celebrity, complete with selfie requests. She makes no apologies for liking sex or wine.

She’s full of life, even when she dreams/hallucinates/sees Death. (In case you’re wondering, he’s wearing a hoodie, looks ill, smell sweaty. He administers his job with the lethargy of an overworked low-level government bureaucrat. He always carries a clipboard.)

The Sicilian setting
When Auntie Poldi’s water goes out for three weeks, she blames the Mafia. This sounds far-fetched for those unfamiliar with Sicily. But as Giordano explains, “Whoever controls the water supply rules Sicily.” (9) Cutting off the water supply to a street or region is an effective way of sending a warning to transgressors.

Giordano explains these types of juicy details in a droll and entertaining way. I learned about vineyards and forgotten lakes, friendly volcanoes and fish and festivities. Sure, I could’ve read the Wikipedia entry on Sicily and learned certain facts. But what’s Wikipedia compared with chasing killers with the half-intoxicated, never law-abiding, wholly-opinionated Auntie Poldi? Sicily bursts alive on the page.

The writer nephew’s ongoing writer-crisis
Anyone who’s written fiction will enjoy the running jokes about the writing life. As Auntie Poldi regales her nephew with her tale, she dispenses writerly “wisdom.” For example, Vito Montano shows Poldi a photo of the murder victim before her death.

Poldi turned the photo this way and that (…) as if this would enable her to see through Elisa’s mask and gain some idea of her backstory wound.

"Because mark my words," she told me once, "a detective must always work out what the murder victim is trying to tell them. (…) The backstory, know what I mean? You always have to know that.” (page. 27-8)

Later, she tells him,

(she) was already pursuing another hypothesis. She would not, however, reveal it to me that evening.
“For purely dramatic reasons, understand? Get this straight: you have to toy with your audience. They don’t want you to give away all your secrets at once. They want to be wooed and enchanted. It’s like a ballet. It’s what you might call literary precision engineering.” (page. 84)

Later, she gives him a good scolding.

“It’s time you made up your mind what you’re writing: a family saga, a fantasy, a thriller, a police procedural or what? Combining them all into one doesn’t work. This Victus Tanner of yours–get rid of him, he’s unbelievable. I won’t let you put my cases through the mincer and blend them with the sausage meat of your pubescent fantasies. It’s all or nothing, understand?”

“But what about artistic license?”

“There’s got to be some art to make free with in the first place.” (age 328)

Incidentally, Auntie Poldi later brags about him to her neighbor.

“He’s a proper novelist. He’s writing an impressive family saga covering three generations. It’s going to be really juicy (…) It’s his big throw of the dice, his ticket to international bestsellerdom.”(page 334)

Ah, if only all would-be novelists had an Auntie Poldi as a beta reader, the publishing world might be a . . . Better place? Worse? Who knows? But her advice and critiques certainly hit their marks.

My conclusion
This was an enchanting, warm story. I was reminded a bit of Mme. Ramotswe from Alexander McCall-Smith’s No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I heartily recommend this book. ( )

cultural-exploration, amateur-sleuth, women-sleuths, murder-investigation, Sicily, verbal-humor, situational-humor, law-enforcement, laugh-out-loud, international-crime-and-mystery *****

More dogged than Miss Marple, more outrageous and funny than Auntie Mame, more conversant with the persona of Death than The Book Thief is our German Sicilian wonder known to her neophyte author/nephew as Auntie Poldi! She is a determined amateur sleuth, a deprived widow, friend to many, frequent nighttime companion to a Sicilian detective inspector, and wearer of impossible wigs. I snorted and chortled and laughed out loud throughout the entire book! That doesn't diminish the murder investigation or the other relevant investigations and the convoluted path those investigations take. The locations and scenery are familiar to those of us who are addicted to the Commissario Montalbano series. There is no way I could decide whether this or the Sicilian Lions is better, only that reading the first is not necessary to enjoyment of this. But it would be fun.
John Brownjohn certainly transforms the Sicilian idioms and German storyline into a fantastically fine read.
I requested and received a free ebook copy from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley. Thank you! ! ( )

Tante Poldi, die mit vollem Namen Isolde Oberreiter heißt, ist wirklich sauer. Sie hat kein Wasser mehr und daran kann nur die Mafia schuld sein. Aber so ist das auf Sizilien, wo sich die Bayerin niedergelassen hat nachdem sie die richtigen Schwingungen gespürt hat. Außerdem lebt hier die Familie ihres verstorbenen Mannes. Dann wird auch noch Läddi ermordet, der Hund ihrer Freundin Valerie. Das Kann Poldi so nicht stehen lassen, sie macht sich natürlich an die Ermittlungen und so kommt es, dass sie dann auch noch im Weinberg vom Winzer Achille Avola über eine Leiche stolpert.
Ihr Geliebter Commissario Vito Montana ist gar nicht erfreut, als er zum Fundort im Weinberg gerufen wird und feststellt, dass Poldi die Nacht bei Achille verbracht hat, sich aber leider so gar nicht erinnern kann, was passiert ist. Aber was kann bei der Poldi schon passiert sein – eine heiße Nacht natürlich, glaubt sie.
Obwohl es nun Sache der Polizei ist, kann Poldi nicht ihre Finger aus dem Fall nehmen, denn vom Ermitteln versteht sie was. Sie holt sich Unterstützung bei der traurige Signorina Donna Poldina und dem Padre Paolo. Poldina zeigt ungeahnte Fähigkeiten und der gute Padro scheint eine bewegte Vergangenheit gehabt zu haben, denn auch seine Fähigkeiten sind ungewöhnlich für einen Pfarrer. Poldi selbst ist immer geradeheraus und mischt die Sizilianer mit ihrem bayrischen Dialekt auf. Ihre Erlebnisse berichtet sie auch in diesem Buch wieder ihrem Neffen, dem Möchtegern-Schriftsteller mit Schreibblockade. Aber es gibt auch noch eine ganze Reihe anderer skurriler Typen, wozu auch Poldis gutmeinende Verwandtschaft gehört, die Poldi wenn nötig aufmuntert.
Dass die Poldi dem armen Montana mit ihren Ermittlungen immer ein Schrittchen voraus ist, ist wohl klar. Aber sie bringt sich damit auch in große Gefahr.
Es geht oft ausgesprochen schräg zu, was eigentlich nicht so mein Ding ist, aber die Poldi muss man einfach gerne haben. Und am Ende gibt es dann einen scheußlichen Cliffhanger, der schon die Spannung für den nächsten Band aufgebaut hat. Also bis bald Poldi! ( )