The title alone should tell you that Book #2 in the
Italian Kitchen
Mysteries,
THE WEDDING
SOUP MURDER, features a wedding. And that um, other thing that tends to be
front and center in cozy mysteries. (Oh, but thereโs also soupโdid I mention the
soup?) However, I did have the good taste to wait until after the reception to
kill off my unfortunate victim, the snobby president of the Belmont Beach
Country Club.
Weddings are, of course, traditionally joyous occasions, but they are so often
rife with drama that I found itโif youโll pardon the expressionโa delicious
premise to use one as the inciting incident in the novel. Think about the
possibilities: a spoiled bridezilla, a felonious father of the bride, two
sparring chefs in a hot kitchen, and a micro-managing club president who gets
under everyoneโs skin. Throw in an Italian bride and a Scots-Irish groom, and
you have a tasty recipe for cozy chaos.
As my main character and sleuth, Victoria Rienzi, wryly observes during the
reception:
On my way to the kitchen I was arrested by a series of whining
groans, a cacophony so loud and dissonant I wanted to clap my hands over my
ears. As I approached the ballroom, I spied the source of the noiseโnot a bunch
of cats in heat, but six guys in kilts tuning up their bagpipes. The sound
clashed wildly with the wedding bandโs version of the Godfather theme blaring
from inside the doors. From my vantage point, I could see the cultural split in
the room, with all the short, dark people on one side and the large, fair people
on the other. My mother will love this one, I thought, and Nonna will make
gloomy predictions for the bride who marries outside her tribe.
Between the soup course and the final chords of the tarantella, Vic overhears
some damning information and has run-ins with a number of suspects as well as
the victim herself. And even before the last grains of rice are swept from the
pavement, she finds herself once again in the middle of a murder investigation.
So if you love a wedding, I hope youโll say โI doโ to
THE WEDDING SOUP MURDER, in
which (almost) everyone gets to live happily ever after!
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