Nico is a former policeman in New York, and has moved to Tuscany. He meets the young girl Cilia in the Bar All-angolo where he has breakfast. She puts a note under One Wag's colar asking him to help her Babbo who has been accused of killing his business partner. Nico takes on the job, which becomes a difficult task. The police man in Pitigliano, Fabbre has quickly decided that Cilia's father Saverio is the guilty party. However, Celia's mother Livia gives Nico a long list of possible suspects, and he makes many trips to Pitigliano to interview the dead man's friends and family to try to figure out who could have killed him. He meets with Perillo and Danielle. The dead man was a womanizer, and had slept with several difference women. He had also stolen money from Severio, and Severio had gone after him for that which is why Severio is blamed by Febbre.

However, Nico does manage to find out the real killer. I thank Netgalley and Soho Crime for the ARC so that I could read the book before publication.

3.5 stars

This series features a former NY homicide detective, Nico, who has moved to a small town in Italy to be near his late wife's family. He has carved out a life here, helping out at the restaurant owned by her relatives. He has made friendships with the local police and businesspeople, and even has a love interest, artist Nelli.

Nico and his dog Rocco (and personally I think there's a bit too much about Rocco) get a message from a young girl who has recently moved to town with her mother. Her father is on the lam after becoming a suspect in his business partner's murder and she asks for help in clearing him and solving the murder so he can come home.

The strengths of this series are the Italian setting and the lovely food and meal preparation descriptions. Nico's journey to make friends, not easy for a former cop in a new and unfamiliar setting, and his basic humanity make him an appealing character.

I have enjoyed the series and the mystery in this one was well done. I found there were a few too many characters for my taste and it was all a bit confusing. And Nico's occasional cluelessness when dealing with his independent and strong girlfriend were occasionally annoying. He came across as needy.

But all in all a pleasant read with a great setting and some characters you can root for. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Murder in Pitigliano is book 5 in A Tuscan Mystery series. I have read several of these Camilla Trinchieri mysteries. The primary protagonist is Nico, a retired New York detective. Nico and his dog Rocco (One-Wag) solve murders now that Nico is retired and living in Italy. His girlfriend, Nelli, is also on hand. There is always a lot of cooking in this series, as well as the occasional recipe at the end of the novel. Many of the familiar detective fiction tropes are present in these novels--deception, half truths, theft, loneliness, duplicity, numerous suspects, and intrigue. As is common, no suspect ever tells the truth when first interviewed.

In many ways, Murder in Pitigliano is static. Nico interviews people and wishes his girlfriend would move in with him, which causes some stress. This has been the formula for the last couple of books. Thankfully there are no car chases through Tuscany's village roads, and even better, some things do change by the end of the novel. There are a lot of suspect twists at the end, rather too many to be believable. There are also a few changes by the end of the book, besides Nico's new, much needed, larger car. It seemed that in Murder in Pitigliano, Nico spends most of his time driving around and interviewing people, but does so without seeming to draw any conclusions. The solution appears to be more of an accident than the result of Nico's critical thinking about the case.

Murder in Pitigliano is a good mystery, but not a great mystery. I can't decide if I want more cooking or more action or perhaps more of both. I kept waiting for something to happen. Thank you to Soho Press and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This novel is a solid 3.5 starts, bumped up to 4 stars.

Trinchieri's books are always a welcome invitation back to the small town of Gravigna and the lives of Nico and his friends. This time, I also got to know the village of Pitigliano. Someday I'd love to visit Tuscany and experience all of these places. The mystery in this series entry was engaging, triggered by a request from a young girl to help clear her father's name and moved forward with Nico's step-by-step policework (with help from Dani and Salvatore, of course). I did suspect the actual criminal at one point, but then enough other probable suspects were introduced that I wasn't sure. A must read for all series fans.

Ex-NYPD detective Nico Doyle is settling into the ex-pat life in an Italian town, surrounded by the relatives and friends of his deceased wife.
In this 5th entertaining novel, he finds himself drawn into the role of a private detective to investigate a murder that has torn a young family apart in the neighboring and beautiful Medieval village of Pitigliano, Italy. The plot allows Nico to pursue multiple leads in a setting, that as always, is an Italian vacation for the reader's soul. Delightful!

A good edition to the series. I found that the large cast of characters made the book somewhat confusing. I’d classify this series as an Italian version of the Martin Walker series due to the emphasis on cooking, wine, and a list of friends that serve as family members. Sometimes the writing is a bit stilted. The descriptions are interesting especially those including food.

The book is fun and well documented. However there are too many characters and sometimes you get confused with names and places. All in all a pleasant read.