Under the Tuscan Gun by Tess Rafferty (Review by Samantha Helias)

Interested in a scenic trip to the small town’s of Italy complete with endless wine, homemade fegatini and a side of murder? Then Under the Tuscan Gun by Tess Rafferty is the book for you. Running from their problems back home in LA, Kat and her husband Mike fly to Italy to stay with friends at a Tuscan villa located right along the sea. What starts off as a carefree vacation suddenly turns into a bloody crime scene after the young couple and their friends come across a dead body. As the two couples slowly start to piece together what happened the days before the murder, they realize that the other vacationers at the villa may not be as innocent as they seem. Kat continues to navigate her increasing curiosity about the lives of each suspect but she slowly starts to struggle to stay present as memories of her past come back to haunt her. Will her investigation lead her down a dangerous path or will she be able to outrun the tragedies of her past? While I enjoyed the humorous tone that this novel provided, I found that the writing often felt disjointed and this made it difficult to follow along with the story. Some of the protagonist’s character progression happened in the middle of the book which felt out of place to me since her background had already been addressed in the beginning. But overall, the cheekiness made up for the run on sentences and choppy pacing. I laughed out loud at the absurdity of their alcohol consumption but as someone who has never experienced cold blooded murder first hand, maybe I too would need a glass of moscato to confront death on vacation. I would recommend this to anyone who loves murder mysteries, Italian food, and pairing unexpected life moments with a glass of wine!