Pompeii, Paccheri, and Panic by Traci Andrighetti Series: Pasta and Piazza Mysteries Book #0.5
Published by Limoncello Press on January 27, 2026
Source: Freebie
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Format: eARC
Add on Goodreads
From USA Today bestselling author Traci Andrighetti comes a laugh-out-loud mystery series where luxury food tours through Italy dish up pasta, piazzas—and plenty of peril.
A luxury food tour in Pompeii? Yes. A poisoned plate of paccheri? Not on the menu.
Giada Adair came to the ancient city for research, not for ruin. But when a graduate student drops dead after eating the dish she refused, her food-and-travel career could be up in smoke before it has even started. Suspected of poisoning and tied to the disappearance of a priceless Roman oil lamp, Giada's in deeper trouble than the buried city itself.
With help from Moira, her street-smart assistant, and a theatrical Contessa who insists that tragedy requires proper staging, Giada must unearth the truth behind the lamp, the murder, and a suspiciously sexy professor. Between poisonous pasta, a fedora-wearing stalker, and ancient brothel murals that would embarrass an art historian, Giada's on the verge of a meltdown—and this time, Mount Vesuvius isn't the only thing ready to blow.
Pompeii, Paccheri, and Panic is a fun novella introducing a new series based around food tours in Italy. I guess it’s a spin off of Andrighetti’s Franki Amato series, but I’ve never read any of those, so can’t make any comparisons.
Giada Adair has taken a job as a tour guide and she and her assistant/friend, Moira, have gone to Pompeii to do some research before her first official tour. We know it’s not going to be smooth sailing. First an ancient lamp just unearthed from a dig site the pair were visiting disappears. Then, a young woman dies after eating a pasta dish met for Giada. Giada is either going to be arrested for the crime or she was the intended victim – either way she’s in trouble and needs to figure out who the killer is.
The characters are fun and the plot worked well. We had several suspects and the clues fit well. I’m interested in learning more about this tour company and the countess – I’m not quite sure what’s going on there. There was a lot of humor in the book, too, some of which worked for me and some didn’t, but i definitely enjoyed it enough to read the first full-length mystery when it comes out.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges: