It was so-so. The author is very good with character development, and I get a hoot out of the whole cast of characters, but I found the mystery itself was weak and disjointed.

I'll keep reading the rest in the series, but it won't be for the mysteries, I think. ( )

In this, the third book in Maddy Hunter's funny Passport to Peril Series, Emily Andrew escorts her group of senior citizens from Iowa on a trip to Italy. Also on the trip are a bunch of would be romance authors. As usual, calamity strikes early and often starting with Emily's suitcase getting lost and their hotel burning down. But things really heat up when the publishing company sponsoring the trip holds a contest where the prize is a book contract with a cash advance of $10,000. Some people will do anything to win and before long the bodies start piling up. All the people who were killed were judges in the contest and Emily's mother is the last judge still around. Emily wants to solve the murder - fast - before her mother becomes the next victim.

This is a funny cozy mystery. Hunter uses the story line to poke gentle fun at romance authors and readers, critics, agents, awards, publishers, Oprah's book club and even Amazon reviewers. Hunter populates the book with humorous, eccentric characters, including Emily's hot to trot millionaire grandmother; her mother who likes to alphabetize everything, including people; Emily's ex-husband Jack, who is now a gorgeous female named Jackie (who reminds me a lot of Lula in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series); and the assorted Iowans on the trip, including one who wears on readers with her habit of rhyming everything. Etienne, Emily's long-distance, boyfriend appears in a series of phone calls and Hunter intriguingly throws in a handsome tour guide named Duncan, who also is attracted to Emily.

The solutions to the murders is a bit of a let down, but don't let that stop you from reading this very funny mystery. ( )

Emily Andrew works for a tour company. By her own admission, wherever she takes folks, people die. (Why do people continue to go on her tours?) This time the tour is to Italy and involves people from Iowa on tour with romance writers. I simply did not connect with the characters in this novel. I'm not sure if that is because I haven't read the previous two installments, if it's because the characters are so shallow, or if it's because I was rather distracted by a busy day at work on one day and tornadoes the next as I was reading it. The plot is rather thin and implausible. In spite of the fact that the first in this series was nominated for an Agatha award, I doubt I'll read any more of the series. ( )

When Emily escorts a tour for her Nana and those other weird Iowan seniors to Italy they are joined by a group a romance writers. As Emily's luck would have it, her luggage is lost. When the hotel burns down, Emily thinks this was actually lucky, since her luggage arrives after the fire. But NO. Now all the writers are borrowing her new outfits.

The sponsor of the romance writers' tour decides to make up for the fire by having a writing contest with the winner guaranteed to be published. With the race to publish on, writers start turning up dead, in Emily's outfits, of course.

The series continues to offer up tons of laughs. It is best read in series, but each novel can stand alone. ( )