Franki Amato Mysteries
2015 Daphne du Maurier Award Finalist
2015 Mystery & Mayhem Award Finalist
Francesca “Franki” Amato is a straight-shooting rookie cop in Austin, Texas, until an embarrassing 911 call prompts her to take a job at her best friend’s PI agency in New Orleans. But Franki soon learns that solving crime in The Big Easy is no Bourbon Street party. Case in point, her first investigation involves the murder of a beautiful boutique manager who was strangled with a cheap yellow scarf, and her primary suspect is her client. When Franki’s not on the clock, she hopes to get cozy with a handsome bank executive named Bradley, but her meddlesome Sicilian nonna has other ideas about who she should date. As Mardi Gras approaches and the boutique mystery deepens, Franki must decipher the odd ramblings of a voodoo priestess, or she could end up single—and the next strangling victim.
Buy Limoncello Yellow:
2015 Mystery & Mayhem Award Finalist
For PI Franki Amato, New Orleans is anything but The Big Easy. Her best friend and employer has assigned her an unsettling investigation—the murder of a gorgeous cosmetics CEO at an allegedly haunted plantation. Adding to Franki’s stress, her meddling Sicilian nonna is planning her engagement even though her boyfriend, Bradley, hasn’t popped the question, and his new secretary seems determined to ensure a proposal never happens. As Bradley grows distant and the plantation grows dangerous, Franki turns to a psychic who is deathly afraid of ghosts. But her relationship is the least of her worries. She has to figure out what pink lip gloss, pirates, and a legendary diamond have to do with the bizarre homicide before she, too, drops dead like a Southern belle during a sweltering summer.
Buy Prosecco Pink:
2017 Reader's Choice Award Winner!
2017 Silver Falchion Award Finalist
2017 Mystery & Mayhem Award Finalist
Private investigator Franki Amato has just turned thirty, and she feels anything but festive. For starters, she can’t have cake because she’s given up sweets, and one of her teeth is torturing her. To add insult to birthday injury, she has to investigate a surreal strip club homicide—with her sixtyish ex-stripper landlady. Then her Sicilian grandma crashes the New Orleans non-party and insists that she steal a lemon to land a husband. Unfortunately for Franki, the man she has in mind has his mind somewhere else, and their relationship seems to have soured. Adding to her troubles, she has to figure out what a missing amber pendant and a mysterious amaretto bottle have to do with the murder, not to mention why she’s being followed. When a second dancer goes down and a third is threatened, Franki turns to a weird witch to crack the case and cancel a curse before someone blows out her candles for good.
Buy Amaretto Amber:
2018 Mystery & Mayhem Award Winner (Best Mystery Caper/Adventure)!
2018 Silver Falchion Award Finalist
2019 Shelf Unbound Notable 100 Book
Halloween is looming large in New Orleans, and Private Investigator Franki Amato’s in a gloomy mood. Her boyfriend Bradley has to leave on an extended business trip, and her slacker brother is coming to town with her matchmaker nonna who’s determined to see a Sicilian lemon superstition bear fruit. Meanwhile, the entire city is spooked because a caped figure is targeting its blood banks. Things turn macabre when a psychic makes a dark prediction about Franki’s brother and a frat boy is found in a cemetery crypt with his blood drained. As bad luck would have it, Franki is hired to investigate the murder by the number one police suspect, an eighteenth-century vampire impersonator. A detective acquaintance offers to team up to find the killer, but he’s interested in more than Franki’s professional input. To solve the case, she goes solo into NOLA’s vampire community and immerses herself in local vampire legends. Can Franki prevent another bloodletting? Or will the next blood spilled be her own?
Buy Campari Crimson:
2020 Shelf Unbound Notable 100 Book
2020 Mystery & Mayhem Award Finalist
It’s Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, but PI Franki Amato has too many problems to celebrate. A proven Sicilian lemon tradition hasn’t landed her a proposal, so her nonna has amped up the meddling to get her married, and pronto. Franki’s also under pressure to solve the strange murder of a family friend’s nephew, Nick Pescatore, who was found on a Mississippi River steamboat rumored to be haunted. When the sinister old boat sets sail on an overnight gambling cruise, Franki goes undercover with a motley crew, including a Mark Twainophile captain with a murderous past and a slimy galley chef with a mobster brother, not to mention an ex-stripper landlady with a newfound career as a memoir writer and all-too public speaker. Franki has to figure out what missing Civil War gold, a playing card, and a mysterious woman on roller skates have to do with Nick’s death. If she doesn’t, it’s anchors aweigh for Franki—down to Davy Jones’ locker.
Buy Galliano Gold:
2021 Mystery & Mayhem Award Finalist
Jazz Fest is in full swing in The Big Easy, but PI Franki Amato is singing the blues. The owner of an historic Italian grocery and deli is murdered in a manner eerily reminiscent of the Axeman of New Orleans, a notorious serial killer who hasn’t struck in over a century, and someone Franki knows has been arrested for the crime. Adding to her distress, Franki, her mom, and her meddling Sicilian nonna finally meet her fiancé’s family, but the tone of their encounter is decidedly downbeat. And just as her personal life strikes a sour note, the killer jazzes up his techniques. The pressure is on Franki to decipher an odd assortment of clues—an old gramophone record, a stolen trumpet, and a bottle of marsala wine. If she doesn’t, she could be the next one to get the ax.
Buy Marsala Maroon:
Valpolicella Violet (Book 7)
2021 Silver Falchion Award Finalist for Best Comedy
2022 Mystery & Mayhem Award Finalist
Franki Amato is in Venice to celebrate her best friend’s Christmas Eve nuptials. She’s looking forward to a relaxing break from the PI grind and a romantic gondola ride with her Casanova. But when a chef goes belly up after making violet risotto for the reception, her holiday plans start sinking like La Serenissima. Dead set on finding the killer and saving her BFF’s wedding, Franki navigates the city’s streets and canals that are darker and more twisted than catacomb tunnels, and all while ghosts of past and present are quite literally haunting her. She has to figure out what grave robberies and an eighteenth-century nun have to do with the murder and decipher a string of clues as murky as the Venetian lagoon—a candlelit coffin, a jeweled cross necklace, and a bottle of Valpolicella. Will Franki get her gondola ride? Or will she too become a phantom of Venice?
Buy Valpolicella Violet:
When PI Franki Amato was invited to watch her sixty-something landlady, Glenda, compete at the French Quarter’s annual kickoff to Mardi Gras weekend, she had reservations. After all, the event is called the Greasing of the Poles, and Glenda is an ex-stripper. But she never expected the fun event to turn her world upside down—and, literally, the victim’s. Now instead of hunting for a wedding venue with her honey, Franki’s hunting for a killer. The trail seems to lead to the wealthy board of the Krewe of Clotho, a carnival organization of women whose character is nowhere near as impeccable as their blonde hair, tan outfits, and old New Orleans ancestry. As members begin dropping like beads from Bourbon Street balconies, Franki has to crack clues as murky as the krewe’s signature milk punch brunch drink. Otherwise, this parade could be her last.
Buy Tuaca Tan:
It’s a slow, steamy summer in New Orleans’ French Quarter, but Franki Amato is busy planning her bridal shower—that is, until a hit-and-run outside a coffee shop gets her PI senses percolating. The victim is linked to crimes at a fancy society wedding in a haunted hotel where Franki’s fiancé’s family is staying. As for the java joint, it’s straight out of a hardboiled detective movie, and there’s something hinky about its walnut liqueur coffee. Franki’s Sicilian nonna says the macabre events are proof the malocchio has been cast on her impending marriage, and to her utter surprise, her future grandmother-in-law also suspects the evil eye. To save her wedding and solve the case, Franki must investigate some shady places, from a witch shop and bridal swap to a shack in the swamp. She has to uncover the identities of a femme fatale and a jewel thief and unravel the meaning of a deadly delivery. If she doesn’t, this noir mystery could turn Grimm fairy tale.
Pre-order Nocino Noir:
Franki Amato Mysteries Box Set 1 (Books 1–3)
Books 1, 2, and 3 in the USA Today bestselling Franki Amato Mysteries: Limoncello Yellow, Prosecco Pink, and Amaretto Amber
When Franki Amato leaves her cheating ex and erratic job as a rookie cop in Austin, Texas, she hopes for a quieter existence at her best friend Veronica’s New Orleans PI firm, Private Chicks. But life in The Big Easy is anything but quiet. Or easy. Her furnished apartment resembles an old French brothel, and her aging ex-stripper landlady has some rather odd policies. Meanwhile, Franki is hired to investigate a series of bizarre murders in a luxury boutique, a haunted plantation, and a Bourbon Street strip club, and her work puts her in contact with colorful local characters, like voodoo mambos, drag queens, and wealthy socialites, not to mention killers. While she’s on the case, her meddlesome Sicilian nonna tries to crack an ongoing mystery—how to get her married, and pronto—and she might just be Franki’s biggest nemesis.
Buy the Franki Amato Mysteries Box Set 1:
Franki Amato Mysteries Box Set 2 (Books 4–6)
Books 4, 5, and 6 in the USA Today bestselling Franki Amato Mysteries: Campari Crimson, Galliano Gold, and Marsala Maroon
When Franki Amato leaves her cheating ex and erratic job as a rookie cop in Austin, Texas, she hopes for a quieter existence at her best friend Veronica’s New Orleans PI firm, Private Chicks. But life in The Big Easy is anything but quiet. Or easy. Her furnished apartment resembles an old French brothel, and her aging ex-stripper landlady has some rather odd policies. Meanwhile, Franki is hired to investigate a series of bizarre murders in a creepy cemetery, a haunted steamboat, and a historic Italian grocery store, and her work puts her in contact with colorful local characters, like voodoo mambos, people who live as vampires, and eccentric jazz musicians, not to mention killers. While she’s on the case, her meddlesome Sicilian nonna tries to crack an ongoing mystery—how to get her married, and pronto—and she might just be Franki’s biggest nemesis.
Buy the Franki Amato Mysteries Box Set 2:
Six hilarious short mysteries in the USA Today bestselling Franki Amato series:
Prugnolino Purple (a spring mystery, 1.5)
Rosolio Red (a holiday mystery, 2.5)
Fragolino Fuchsia (a Rome mystery, 3.5)
Cannellino Caramel (a holiday mystery, 4.5)
Cremoncello Cream (a Mount Etna mystery, 5.5)
Mirto Magenta (a Sardinia mystery, 6.5)
The mini mysteries can be read between the books or as standalone stories! You choose!
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A new coffee shop across the street from Private Chicks has PI Franki Amato’s suspicions percolating. The place is straight out of a hardboiled detective movie complete with the saxophone soundtrack and strange comings and goings. Not only that, some shady business with a walnut cappuccino has Franki wondering whether the erratic owner and his witchy nonna are real-life villains. As she delves deeper into the dubious family, Franki must uncover the identity of a femme fatale and the meaning of a deadly delivery. If she doesn’t, this noir mystery could turn Grimm fairy tale.
Get this free novella! Visit the Twisty Tales & Cozy Crimes page, scroll down until you find Nocino Noir and claim your FREE copy!