Reviewed by Fiona Ingram for Readers' Favorite

Cheese lovers of the world unite and join forces with Sybilla Waterman as she careers round hairpin bends in an adventure that will teach you a lot about cheese, if not about life. This hilarious, non-stop, laugh-a-minute book recounts the adventures of Sybilla, who embarks upon a life-changing (sometimes disastrous) mission: herding a group of American wanna-be cheese makers around Italy, tasting the best cheese the country has to offer. Take one minivan and cram a bunch of Yanks inside, along with a jealous Italian boyfriend, two neurotic cats, and a strange bunch of motives. You have got the makings of a thriller with a lot of cheese in the picture. As the movie line goes, “Don’t bring a (cheese) knife to a gunfight.” Sybilla, while schlepping this motley crew of cheese fans around her favorite country (she lives in the Ligurian hills), discovers that some of her tour members are highly suspicious. One doesn’t look as if he has any interest in cheese, and having deplored his lack of Italian, is overheard speaking perfect Italian. He also has a gun. Why is the rich and swanky couple more interested in antiques than cheese making? How did Sybilla’s missing cat Massimo end up in the arms of the two people who definitely hate cats? Why is the Carabiniere chasing the tour bus? When bullets start flying, and people are stalked in the Tuscan catacombs, Sybilla fears her Grande Giro Classico dei Formaggi Italiani (Big Italian Cheese Tour) is doomed. This was supposed to be her new start after the death of her husband (gone ten years) and her beloved dog (gone one month). Nothing has worked out as she had imagined. Can Sybilla survive the cheese tour of her own making and unravel the tangled threads of a criminal conspiracy?

Author Sveva Prince has an incisive wit and an unerring eye for the ridiculous in people and situations. Her style, which takes some getting used to, is reminiscent of the funny lady Kathy Lette. Through Sybilla’s somewhat skewed vision of life, the characters reveal themselves, and some are downright nasty, some hilarious, and some sad. One can only commiserate with Sybilla as she tries to make sense of her tour group, their problems, emotions, and (more importantly) their motives. Throw in a bit of history, a bit of geography, a lot of cheese, and a gun, and you have a book that is guaranteed to keep a smile on your face. Although I found the deeper plot slow to surface, by the end of the book the reader is hanging off the edge of the cliff, along with Sybilla and her two cats. A very funny, very enjoyable read, written in a distinctive, unbeatable style. Highly recommended.