Brought to you by OBS Reviewer Jeanie

This complex mystery was intriguing and exciting. I saw my favorite people from the Villa Orlandini, including Chef Claudio, his son Pete, the Bari sisters, and Nell, the cooking school designer from New Jersey. We also meet their guests from New York. The mysteries are gifts that keep giving! Someone the Orlandinis deem the witch is murdered. There is also a mystery that began early in WWII, involving the Villa at a time when the Orlandini family fled Italy due to the impending war.

The Orlandini Cooking School in Tuscany welcomes a New York billionaire. Philip is renting the entire school for a four-day class for his mother Mimi, her best friend Muffy, and himself. Mimi’s 80th birthday is that weekend. She has dementia, making it her last chance to travel. It would mean everything to her to visit their school in Tuscany. Since she loves ziti, he wants their cooking theme to be Ziti Variations.

Adjacent to the villa/ cooking school is Pete’s olive grove. Pete, the olive grove, and villa grace the front cover and are the leading article in the internationally distributed Bellissimo! magazine. He had to attend meetings in Rome for a few days. He suddenly has many opportunities as a handsome bachelor and entrepreneur. Nell, his girlfriend, is not amused at some of the attention he is getting.

The day that the Copeland party is due to arrive, Nell saw a man and woman walking in the grove. The woman acted as if she owned it. Nell went to see what they needed, but they both ran off the property. Nell followed them into town and saw them go into a hotel. She went into Carlo’s bakery and scheduled a time for the Copeland party to learn how to grind grains by hand to use for the ziti. Nell saw the woman and her companion in the bakery before she left, told them she would be happy to give them a tour, and the woman said she knows the property as if it were her own.

The first evening that the Copelands and Muffy were there, they went to the best cocktail bar in town, where Nell learned the woman’s name is Renata from New York. She acted as if she knew Philip, but he doesn’t know her. She manages her inheritance, is into property development, and is seeking investors.

Philip is funding a special exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He is interested in adding the architectural drawings for the Villa, built in the late 1500’s. What Nell finds, with the help of a nun who had helped the sister caring for the villa during WWII, is amazing, as it will connect the 1940’s to the present activities.

When Nell brought Philip, Mimi, and Muffy to town the following day, Nell overheard Renata’s argument with her companion, Jason, who is her attorney. She dumped him as a boyfriend and talked about turning her inheritance, including the shops and the grove, into luxury condos. When their spat ended, Jason left. Later, she saw Renata going into the hotel with – Pete? Pete, who is in Rome?

The next day, Nell took a spill into the groove, and rolled into something soft – the clearly strangled remains of Renata. What’s even more shocking is how Nell learned that Renata was Pete’s wife when she didn’t even know he was married! Renata had never filed for divorce twenty years ago as promised. She will file for divorce now only if he gives her the entire olive grove. As her husband, with his lack of alibi and huge motive, the police arrest him for murder.

Annamaria, Chef’s long-term sous chef and house manager, and her sisters want Nell to find who killed the witch. She had helped solve other murders in the short time she has been there. No matter what secrets Pete kept from her, he didn’t deserve to be charged with a murder he didn’t commit.

It was delightful to catch up with everyone at the villa! I wasn’t happy with what appeared to be Pete’s duplicity. I very much enjoyed meeting Mimi and Muffy but didn’t care for Renata and Jason. The characters were very well defined. We are privy to all of Nell’s thoughts, which at times ran on forever, but were very descriptive and at times humorous.

This novel is enhanced with plot twists and surprises, especially at the end. I particularly enjoyed the intriguing historical mystery, especially seeing the war from the perspective of nuns meshing with other things I’ve read. Both mysteries kept me guessing throughout. Heartwarming things I appreciated the depth of friendships and how fascinating Sister Ippolito was. The ending was very satisfactory, and there were no loose ends. I highly recommend this cozy mystery!

Dollycas’s Thoughts

It’s Ziti time at the Tuscan Cooking School. A New York philanthropist, Philip Copeland has bought out the entire four-day class for himself, his mother, and her friend.

Nell has really wrapped up what she was hired to do but now that she is in a relationship with Chef Claudio’s son, Pete, Pierfranco Orlandini, she doesn’t want to leave so she takes on the task of keeping Chef focused on teaching and not on the American cooking show he has set his sights on. With Pete out of town, she feels the pressure to make this trip perfect for their guests. But while getting ready for their arrival she notices a man and a woman trespassing in Pete’s Olive grove. Later the woman is found dead in the same grove and Pete becomes the prime suspect.

All this means Nell’s plate is overflowing. She has to try to clear Pete while keeping her guests happy, entertained, and cooking ziti. She has also learned more about the history of the cooking school property and is trying to find items to display that will illustrate how the place was used in its past lives but she may have bitten off more than she can chew.

The author has packed this book full of life, mystery, and food. Nell continues to try to hold things together at the cooking school and with Chef Claudio that is no easy task. Her relationship with Pete hits a bit of a snag but she pushes forward to keep all the other plates she is juggling high in the air. At the end of the previous book, Crime of the Ancient Marinara, a key part of the staff leaves. Thankfully that is addressed early in this story as Nell is almost forced to take on an even larger role at the school. She is written very realistically and some of her reactions are priceless. Again, Chef is quite a character. A lovable, over-the-top character that can make you laugh out loud, shake your head, and want to scream, sometimes all at the same moment.

In this story, we meet Philip Copeland, his eighty-year-old mother Mimi, and her friend Muffy Onderdonk. Their four-day luxury trip to Tuscany was a treat for ziti obsessed Mimi’s birthday. Sadly, Mimi is dealing with the onset of dementia but she sure loved her trip and all the ziti she could eat. It was easy to root for Mimi and I was happy that her trip was filled with fun events.

Surprisingly, the victim had many more enemies in Italy than was originally thought. She had big plans that ruffled a lot of feathers. This mystery was cleverly plotted and I enjoyed the way it played out. The subplot of the school history really grabbed my interest as well. I had part of the mystery of it figured out but was taken aback by a sudden turn of events that twisted the whole story up delightfully.

The Tuscany setting never disappoints. Ms. Cole describes everything so well that it is like a virtual vacay. And the food, oh my! I was hoping for a new special ziti recipe at the end of the book but that was not to be. My husband does make a great baked ziti and we enjoyed that the night after I finished this book to take care of my cravings.

Evil Under the Tuscan Sun was filled with engaging characters wrapped up in a fine mystery that included some very interesting history all in a spectacular setting. I am really looking forward to the next Tuscan Cooking School Mystery just to see what Nell has thrown at her next.

Evil Under the Tuscan Sun Earns 5/5 Saucy Ziti-s…Entertaining & Clever!

Nell Valenti didn’t think her future would be permanently connected with Villa Orlandini cooking school and Chef Claudio Orlandini, despite her romance with his son “Pete,” the owner of Silver Wind Olive Grove. She advertises for a new sous chef, but until then, she was glad Annamaria Bari, the former sous chef and exonerated murder suspect, agreed to be a substitute during the upcoming private cooking class, Ziti Variations. Wealthy philanthropist Phillip Copeland used his clout and thousands of dollars to reserve a four-day cooking class as a birthday present for his eighty-year-old mother and ziti-enthusiast Mimi along with her friend Muffy Onderdonk. The “Ziti” event is well received until…loud incidents with Chef, his desire to enter the television show Hot Chef: Italian Style, the appearance of a mysterious woman seen sneaking in Pete’s olive grove and overhearing her conversation about development plans for the area, personal threats and physical altercations, and the discovery of her body on Pete’s property….murder!

It’s “buona lettura!” with Stephanie Cole’s third book in the Tuscan Cooking School Mystery series from cooking class details, grinding wheat and bread baking, tips on ziti and other Italian delicacies to lots of “Italiano linguaggio” adding realism to the Tuscan setting. The three-centuries of history for the Villa Orlandini, the Sisters of the Order of St. Veronica of the Veil, and the Orlandini family created an additional fascinating mystery with WWII playing a role as it often does when stories are set in Italy. This all creates a compelling and complex murder investigation that challenged my efforts to solve it…which I didn’t. The victim was the perfect karmic choice due to shocking connections, past illegal or unethical decisions, and her hostile personality which spotlights many suspects including Pete himself. The characters were varied in manner and temperament which masked well those with secrets and ulterior motives. Added interest came from the Copeland guests: Mimi’s dementia, her life and friendship with Muffy, and recent loss of one of her sons. The conclusion was intense with lives threatened at gunpoint, and although the arrest was a surprise, it was a clever conclusion. Nell is a strong female lead, and her lack of fluency in Italian depicted realistic incidents. Cole’s narrative showed some of Nell’s frustration with comprehension, but readers not need worry about their own frustration. Many phrases are explained in context, words themselves offer familiarity to English, and eBook readers can highlight to find definitions. It never stalled or interfered with my enjoyment, instead I almost felt like I was there. It’s a cooking school, so a recipe is, of course, included…although surprisingly no “ziti.” Enjoy Gorgonzola con Salsa di Fichi (Gorgonzola with Fig Sauce), a recipe Stephanie Cole adds “in memory of my chef cousin, Lisa Fein Lang.”

I really enjoy this series! The characters and setting are just as charming as the first two books. While I still enjoy Stephanie Cole's writing and the series overall, this one is my least favorite of the series so far. The beginning was a bit slow, so the pacing was off. I did enjoy the second half more. I will definitely read book 4!

3.5 stars, rounded up. I enjoyed this book perhaps more than any other in the series so far, and that was likely due largely to the incorporation of the historical mystery within this one that provided a really interesting storyline that was a little bit outside of what readers would usually get in a cozy mystery. I had some concerns for longevity with this series due to the nature of Nell's role at the school, but I think the author has solved that with Nell's relationship with Pete.

The Orlandini Cooking School is off to a bright start. Word has spread and a wealthy New York philanthropist books the school for a ziti workshop. Four days of private pasta and marinara classes with Nell at the helm. Pete is off to Rome on business and Chef is too busy preparing to possibly win a spot on a cooking show. Organizing the workshop takes an interesting turn when strangers appear in Pete’s olive grove, and one of the strangers is found dead on Orlandini property.

Evil Under the Tuscan Sun is the third book in the Tuscan Cooking School Mystery series by Stephanie Cole. The book was an engaging story with likable characters and a believable mystery. Nell is a hard-working American employed at the Orlandini culinary school in Italy. Nell is written with realism and her interactions with everyone fit the way a professional in a less-than-perfect situation would act.

The mysterious death of a woman found on Orlandini property was well thought out. The suspects were plenty, even if unlikely and/or not plausible. The lead up to and reveal of the murderer, along with the means and motive, were plotted well. I enjoyed the additional storylines threaded through the murder mystery.

There was plentiful character development and wonderful world building. I was able to visualize every element of the story including the mouth-watering recipes. I'm excited to see what happens at Villa Orlandini in the next book.

3.5 stars

This cozy series starring Nell, a cooking school designer, is set in Tuscany and has an appealing cast of characters. This entry has some meaty plot elements tracing back to World War II and old art thefts.

Nell has a lot going on -- the cooking school has been rented by a wealthy American for a special event with him, his mother (who suffers from dementia) and her best friend. Nell also has her normal publicity and administrative duties to attend to, and is working to uncover some old documents that might be used for a special and prestigious exhibit about the school. And then the dead body turns up.

Turns out, the murder victim has close ties to the villa -- and soon Nell's boyfriend, the chef's son, is arrested for the crime. Nell scrambles to free her boyfriend, keep the American guests happy and busy, unearth the past documents, and find the murderer.

Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. NOTE: I enjoy this series, but the last sentence of this book is a blatant "buy the next book" cliffhanger that made me feel manipulated.

The third book in the Tuscan Cooking School mystery series did not disappoint. Some of the old characters are as zany as usual, and new unusual personalities are added to a delectable plot, amid a lot of tasty Italian dishes. Add in themes such as dementia and Italian Church history to the mystery and romance, and you have a satisfying read.