As soon as I started reading I was completely lost in the story, lives of the characters and of course the beautiful Tuscan landscape that I love so much. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. I never thought Connie was losing her mind but rather that there were sinister forces at work and this led to a feeling of mistrust regarding every character.

I raced through it in a couple of days and recommend it to lovers of atmospheric historical mysteries with beautiful settings. Initially I felt that having separate identities for the two very different genres – contemporary psychological suspense and historical mystery – would make it easier for readers to be sure exactly what they were getting. As the dynamic of the group shifts over the months of William's illness, Connie is forced to confront the fact that things in the castle aren't as they seem - and in fact are more immediately dangerous than the gathering political storm cloud. The murder mystery in the story was slow building- I caught on about two thirds in what was going on although I didn’t get it completely right!I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I will definitely be looking out the authors other books as the writing in this one was superb. Set in a remote castle in the lovely Tuscan hills at the time Mussolini was introducing Fascism and was starting to get a hold on Italy's disgruntled workers, this cosy mystery gives both a little escapism to the warm Mediterranean climate, so different from the cold English weather and claustrophobic house that Constance has left behind, and an insight into a diverse range of characters that Rachel has created. However, while he worries about what people might think of his mother taking up paid employment, it's clear to see that Connie feels unfulfilled and stultified by her life in Pinner. Historical fiction is something I’ve only fairly recently started enjoying and this was a good one as I found myself drawn into the plot chapter by chapter. I read this in the run up to and during a holiday in Tuscany so I was able to have an immersive experience so to speak!

I devoured this book in a few sittings and it strongly reminded me of the golden age crime from the period. The story is told through Connie’s point of view for the entire length of the book and this does work very well. Evelyn is a strange character, brittle and moody whilst Roberto devotes himself to the fascist cause. William North, the art expert she is employed to watch over while he recovers from a cerebral haemorrhage, is younger than she expected. Desperate for her mother to notice her, she soon forms an attachment of sorts to Constance, who has warmed to the child’s intelligence and wit.Rachel’s latest novel, Murder Under the Tuscan Sun is once again superb historical suspense crime, this time with an irresistible Italian 1920s setting.

She’s so strong and worldly, even in the face of some weird and spooky happenings in the castle, and I liked that she tackled tricky situations with fortitude and courage. But William is not recovering as expected, Evelyn is acting strangely and Connie is accused of stealing and is becoming confused. However her Italian adventure, at first so full of promise, soon leads to danger and she has to use all her inner resources to survive intact. It soon becomes clear that all is not what it seems within the walls of the castle, and soon Connie finds herself questioning her own sanity.This is good as the reader gets to understand her mindset as she gets more and more unsure of her own mental state, the way her confidence starts to falter and the creeping sense of dread and fear that slowly overcome her. It was written with care and attention by a servant girl who travelled from England to Australia on a cruise liner in the late 1930s.