The Villa in Italy

Elizabeth Edmondson’s A Villa in Italy owes a large debt to her namesake, Elizabeth von Arnim and her magical The Enchanted April. As in van Arnim’s book, four dissimilar people (ladies in van Arnim’s version) descend on a villa in Italy, each vaguely dissatisfied with their lives, and their time on the continent changes them and their entire lives.

Edmondson takes that premise and adds a mystery. In her novel, set after World War II, the foursome — an opera singer, a floundering mystery novelist, a New York banker with a guilty conscience, and a physicist distraught that his work at Los Alamos led to nuclear destruction — travel to the Villa Dante in Liguria to claim legacies. The foursome are strangers not only to each other, show more but none knew their benefactor, Beatrice Malaspina, either. Who was the mysterious Beatrice Malaspina? And why did she mention these strangers in her will? And are there other secrets yet to unfold?

I adored Edmondson’s fabulous series featuring intelligence officer Hugo Hawksworth (A Man of Some Repute and A Question of Inheritance, the novella A Youthful Indiscretion thrown in for good measure), and I can’t wait for the third novel, which can’t come too soon for me. (Best of all, these are available for free for those with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.) That said, I loved, loved, loved this stand-alone novel, which will leave you feeling as contented as if you, too, had spent a few sun-dapples summer weeks at the Villa Dante. show less

While I loved the beautiful Italian setting, I found it hard to connect with this book. The plot was very slow, especially at the start when the characters were being introduced. However, the mystery was good and the characters likeable.

Mostly likeable characters set as a bit of a classic mystery in post war Italy. But the book is slow moving and there is a great deal of repetition. Using Dante's Divine Comedy as a plot device leads to some scenes that feel forced and there are books that use it more effectively. Generally an ok summer ready.

A bit of fluff about four people summoned to a villa in Italy to find a codicil to a dead woman's will that makes them all heirs to her estate. A great distraction from our post-election dramas

I picked this up from the Audible Plus catalog and oh boy am I glad I didn't pay for it. I made three separate attempts and just couldn't get past the second chapter.

Didn't finish

A gentle read - another holiday book.