Sandra Bonzi has created an unforgettable female protagonist.

A light-hearted, humorous, and cozy mystery starring a journalist-turned sleuth who will enchant the readers.

Fifty-year-old Elena believes she has everything, and anyway, her life is all there: a husband, two grown children, a job she enjoys but without any more drive; a pretty ordinary and maybe a bit boring life, in short. The contrary of her sprightly eighty year-old mother Teresa, who calls Elena one morning to announce she has just left her husband to go and live with two friends of her. But this is not the only novelty: instead of being promoted as she imagined, Elena gets fired from the newspaper she writes for. There is more than enough to undermine anyone’s enthusiasm, but not hers. Indeed, her life gets really turned upside down when a tricky crime case blows up in her hands. Two trolleys dripping with blood are found in a street in the center of Milan. For Elena that discovery is the occasion for a big scoop.

Thus, she sets out to investigate with the intention to get her career back on track. However, not even in her wildest assumptions she could imagine that she will find herself teaming up with her mother and her friends, who are convinced that the body found in the suitcases, horribly mutilated and cut into little pieces, is that of their tango teacher. And above all, Elena can’t even predict that the investigation, on the edge of legality, will awaken her marriage from hibernation and will make her feel alive again.

Told with real warmth and wit, Nove giorni e mezzo is a treat for mystery lovers looking for a story to savor until its very last page. It has it all: humorous style and frenetic pacing, an atmospheric setting and intricate plot, with a quirky group of old ladies at the centre and an appealing and unforgettable female protagonist to root for. A book that will make you laugh out loud and go back to loving yourself.