Nonna Maria and the Case of the Lost Treasure by Lorenzo Carcaterra
Book Summary.
NONNA MARIA AND THE CASE OF THE LOST TREASURE
Lorenzo Carcaterra
All I did was read a Lorenzo Carcaterra novel to feel like I’ve traveled the world.
We’re armchair traveling and visiting the beautiful island of Ischia, Italy with Nonna in NONNA MARIA AND THE CASE OF THE LOST TREASURE. It has been requested that she help a long-time friend and peer, Captain Moreno, on a case. This case is unlike anything Nonna or The Captain have faced before. They’ll need every ounce of bravery and every pound of knowledge to solve the case.
Luckily, it seems they have enough of both.
Nonna must solve the case of the lost treasure, dispel a dose of old Italian wisdom, and keep everyone around her safe. Will she do it or will this case be the one that ends Nonna’s solving streak?
Only Lorenzo Carcaterra and NONNA MARIA will tell.
When I want to travel sometimes, I read a book. When I want to travel to Italy specifically, get a dose of grandmotherly advice, catch up with the locals, and enjoy a triple espresso and a bite of tiramisu, I reach for the latest book in the NONNA MARIA series.
Recently it was NONNA MARIA AND THE CASE OF THE LOST TREASURE and just like last time I had a fantastic reading experience. This time Nonna is on the case again. This time at the request of Captain Moreno, a long-time friend and peer.
I love Nonna and The Captain is a close second. They are what makes the series and I always enjoy spending time with them.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine | Bantam for the advanced copy!
NONNA MARIA AND THE CASE OF THE LOST TREASURE…⭐⭐⭐
Fans of Chelsea Cain and Lisa Gardner will devour this edgy thriller about the gruesome secrets hidden beneath a small-town amusement park. From the author of Creep, Freak, and The Butcher, Jennifer Hillier’s “fine knack for creating hideous killers” (Booklist) is vividly on display.
Welcome to Wonderland. By day, it’s a magical place boasting a certain retro charm. Excited children, hands sticky with cotton candy, run frenetically from the Giant Octopus ride to the Spinning Sombrero, while the tinkling carnival music of the giant Wonder Wheel—the oldest Ferris wheel in the Pacific Northwest—fills the air. But before daybreak, an eerie feeling descends. Maybe it’s the Clown Museum, home to creepy wax replicas of movie stars and a massive collection of antique porcelain dolls. Or maybe it’s the terrifyingly real House of Horrors. Or…maybe it’s the dead, decaying body left in the midway for all the Wonder Workers to see.
Vanessa Castro’s first day as deputy police chief of Seaside, Washington, is off to a bang. The unidentifiable homeless man rotting inside the tiny town’s main tourist attraction is strange enough, but now a teenage employee—whose defiant picture at the top of the Wonder Wheel went viral that same morning—is missing. As the clues in those seemingly disparate crimes lead her down a mysterious shared path of missing persons that goes back decades, she suspects the seedy rumors surrounding the amusement park’s dark history might just be true. She moved to Seaside to escape her own scandalous past, but has she brought her family to the center of an insidious killer’s twisted game? Acclaimed author Jennifer Hillier’s bone-chilling thriller is masterful and fast-paced, hurtling toward a shocking, bloody conclusion.
WONDERLAND
Jennifer Hillier
At this point, I know exactly what I’m going to get when I pick up a Jennifer Hillier novel. It’s going to have a swift pace, and an engaging plot with very human-like characters. And according to history-I’m going to love it.
Vanessa Castro is new on the job as deputy police chief in the small town of Seaside. She comes to Seaside trying to outrun her past, start over and make a better life for her family, what’s left of it.
On her first day, the town and its connection to Wonderland present itself with a murder and a missing person. Vanessa learns the hard way how deep those connections go, and we learn all the ways in which WONDERLAND and Vanessa’s personal life are similar.
The book opens with two mysteries, which unravel into several more. It is an expertly written crime mystery disguised as a thriller. It even had some qualities of a horror movie where the town revolves around a haunted amusement park.
Vanessa has trouble with boundaries, telling the truth, and being vulnerable. She is an excellent character. She has just enough mystery to keep you interested. Most of the time her storyline was more intriguing than the main storyline of the book. I would read another book that starred Vanessa for sure.
I listened to the 2023 version of the audiobook that will be released next Tuesday. I enjoyed the narration and thought the performance led to my enjoyment of the book.
You should add listening to this thriller to your Spring Break plans.
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copies!
WONDERLAND…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Toni Morrison’s Beloved is a spellbinding and dazzlingly innovative portrait of a woman haunted by the past.
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has borne the unthinkable and not gone mad, yet she is still held captive by memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Meanwhile Sethe’s house has long been troubled by the angry, destructive ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
Sethe works at beating back the past, but it makes itself heard and felt incessantly in her memory and in the lives of those around her. When a mysterious teenage girl arrives, calling herself Beloved, Sethe’s terrible secret explodes into the present.
Combining the visionary power of legend with the unassailable truth of history, Morrison’s unforgettable novel is one of the great and enduring works of American literature.
BELOVED
Toni Morrison
(1987)
Narrated by: Toni Morrison
It took me a month to read BELOVED. Quite a bit longer than it takes me to read most books. I came to understand that BELOVED is not a book you simply pick up while you’re folding laundry.
You must sit with it and let it simmer.
BELOVED is a story about a visitor trying to find a home in other people’s houses, a man trying to recreate something he’s never known, and a woman invoking the past and trying to heal from it. It’s about grief and shame and the long lingering effects of being shackled in body, mind, and in spirit.
Read by the author how she meant it to be read, how she wanted it to sound, to carry, to land. The audiobook listening experience is exceptional. A winding road of sorts. Beloved is disorienting. Part of the journey is learning what you can hold onto, what is real or imagined, and what it all means.
If you haven’t read BELOVED, why not start today? There is no better day than today.
