Adriana Licio Books In Order

Publication Order of Italian Village Mystery Books

Publication Order of The Homeswappers Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Adriana Licio is a bestselling cozy mystery author best known for the “An Italian Village Mystery” series. Once upon a time she lived in Scotland and never recovered which is why she decided to write her series in English. She is an Italian author and lives in the Apennine Mountains in the south of Italy but often visits Maratea, the coastal setting of her cozy mystery series. Adriana goes to Maratea to find some peace and quiet but often finds some intriguing stories and beguiling settings while down there. She resisted a career in writing for as long as she could since she had a reputation for living in the clouds and did not want her galloping imagination reignited. But then she found an alluring blank page and the English she had learned in Scotland began to flow. She published her first novel “Murder on the Road” in 2019. When she is not writing her novels she loves exploring small villages, savoring good food, walking, traveling, and reading. Adriana helps run the perfumery shop that has been in her family for decades. She also loves to take walks along the beach and in nature alongside her husband Giovanni and her dog Frodo.

Adriana Licio has always loved travel literature and the classics though most of her bookshelves are filled with mysteries, particularly those of Agatha Christie. In fact, her writing style in the “An Italian Village Mystery” series has been compared to that of Christie. She loves a mystery that does not have a lot of gore or violence and one that provides an honest look into a community’s way of life. The community aspect is particularly important to Licio, as it provides a range of things she can write about. For her, a cozy is so fascinating for it brings to the fore the aspects of community culture, food, habits, and mystery. She then combines this with some gossip and quirky characters to make for a story full of hope and a happy ending. She loves exploring the challenges of everyday life with a healthy dose of comedy and heartwarming stories that will have her readers flipping through the pages.

Born and bred in small-town Italy, she is fascinated by the fact that her cozy mysteries are read in remote towns of New Zealand, India, Australia or some rural town in the United States. The fact that English is an international language is one of the reasons she decided to write her novels in the language rather than in her native Italian. Her heroine is Gio Brando, a 38-year-old gutsy travel writer who is back home in Southern Italy. She has just broken up with her boyfriend and is devastated since it was less than a month to their wedding day. She is hoping for peace and quiet back home but on the first day, she discovers a corpse and so begins her sleuthing lifestyle. The novels are set in a small village on the Mediterranean shoreline known as Maratea. It is a spectacular town with sheer rock walls dropping into the sea that is the perfect spot for relaxation. Gio is an adventurous girl who taps into her nature to find clues for the many mysteries she solves in Maratea.

“Murder on the Road” the first novel of the “An Italian Village Mystery” series opens to Gio who is back in Maratea after breaking up with her boyfriend. She cannot wait to get back to the peace and quiet of her hometown, where she can sit back and write her travel stories. On the morning after she arrives back into town, she decides to do some shopping and leaves the car parked at a closed road junction. She crosses the road intending to catch a bus but stumbles on a grisly scene. It seems that a boulder fell on the roof of a car and she is not so sure if the person inside is alive or dead. The police conclude that this was no accident and suddenly Gio is a murder suspect. She does not believe in the capacity of the Maratea police and knows that she needs to investigate the case herself if she is to get out of the jam she now finds herself in. She could get some valuable gossip by working at her sister’s perfume shop, which is some kind of meeting spot for the locals. She could also visit some of the local cafes and maybe get some clues. But there are a lot of suspects and tons of twists and turns that keep the story complicated yet intriguing.

“A Fair Time For Death” the second novel by Adriana Licio is set in Maratea during the annual Chestnut Fair that always brings visitors from far and wide. But this year is different as somebody dies in what was supposed to be a fun event. Vanda one of the organizers of the Chestnut Fair feels like eating some chestnuts and heads deeper into the woods where it is less crowded. But then she stumbles upon the body of an elderly woman in the dry leaves on the forest floor. Just as she is about to scream, she is hit behind the head and collapses in a heap. Vanda does not know if she had been felled by a branch wielded by someone or if a branch had come off a tree and knocked her out. When she comes to, she is in the hospital with a concussion. She tells the police about the body she had seen but the police cannot find the body where Vanda has been discovered. They believe that her mind is playing tricks with her and she likely never saw anything. But her friend Gio believes her and the two team up to find the corpse or the killer. But then some strange people start coming into the perfumery just when they seem to be making a breakthrough in the case.

“A Mystery Before Christmas” the third novel of the An Italian Village Mystery series opens to Mrs. De Blasi an elderly widow confused by what she sees. She is looking at Betta Giordano but all she sees is Marco, her son who died years ago in a tragic occurrence. But how can she see him in Betta when she was not even born at the time. Gio Brando the travel writer is intrigued by the many coincidences that connect the De Blasi family to Betta. The child bears a strong resemblance to someone who is long dead and it does not make sense given they should have no relation. Even more puzzling is that Betta knows an ancient tune that is only heard in the mouths of residents from some of the most remote parts of Britain. To make matters even more complicated, Mrs. De Blasi’s carillon that she had gifted to Giordano has the same tunes. Gio taps into her natural investigative skills to try to unravel the mystery. It is a race against worsening weather and time to resolve the mystery to ensure that everyone has a happy Christmas.