Stefanie’s First Official Assignment is Murder
Last year, one of my favorite books was the first in M. A. Monnin’s Intrepid Traveler Mysteries. Part of that was definitely the fun setting. For the second book, Death on the Grand Canal, we are in Venice. It’s always been a city I wanted to visit, and this virtual visit was the next best thing.
At the end of the first book, Stefanie Adams had accepted a job offer from Thomas Burkhardt to work for him at a division of Interpol focused on recovering stolen art. She hasn’t even had time to go home before they get their first assignment as coworkers. Thomas has gotten word that the Borgia Peacock, a jewel encrusted pendant form the Middle Ages, is going to be on sale. It was last seen over a hundred years ago before it was stolen from a museum.
Stefanie is going undercover, trying to befriend the countess selling it in an effort to be selected to buy it. However, when Stefanie accepts the invitation to the countess’s palazzo in Venice, she discovers she has more competition than she expected. Among the others bidding is a notorious fence of stolen goods. Then the fence is murdered. Can Stefanie and Thomas figure out who committed the murder? Will they be able to recover the pendant?
While most of the action does take place in Venice, the book actually starts in Milan. I was a bit confused at first, but it isn’t long before we move to Venice. Still, I did feel like the book took a bit of time before the story really got going. I felt like we had a bit of a travelogue, which was ironic since Stefanie was complaining about not getting to see the sites in either town.
However, once Stefanie arrives at the palazzo and we meet the suspects, things pick up. There is tension even before the dead body turns up, and that just heightens things. Since the palazzo has limited entrances, we have a limited suspect pool, and I was definitely intrigued by who it could have been and how they were sneaking around. There are multiple secrets and a few good twists before we reach the logical conclusion.
In addition to being co-workers, Stefanie and Thomas have started a romantic relationship. Honestly, their sub-plot here bothered me. At times, I could see Stefanie’s point of view, but at other times, I felt like she was behaving poorly. I think part of it was because this was a sub-plot that could have been resolved with a couple of honest conversations. Granted, the plot didn’t allow them to have those needed conversations. To be clear, both were wrong at various times, but it just didn’t quite work for me. And maybe that’s because I was rooting for them to get together in the first book, and I want to see them together and happy now. It definitely could have been handled better.
That sub-plot aside, I do really like Stefanie and Thomas. They are the only returning characters from the first book. I enjoyed spending more time with them, and it was nice to see them work together officially. Personal issues aside, they do make a great team.
The suspects also grow as the book progresses. Part of that comes from the secrets we uncover along the way. I grew to really like several of them, even though they were working against Stefanie and Thomas getting the pendant.
I’m ready to go visit Venice myself now. The setting came to life, and I want to spend time seeing it for myself. If only things like a job weren’t keeping me from doing that.
Death on the Grand Canal is the next best thing to a trip to Venice. If you are interested in the city, you’ll be glad you picked up this book. Fans of strong mysteries will be happy they started this series as well.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book.
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