Rita Calabrese sits down for a Q&A with dru’s book musings responding to twenty or more questions so that we can learn more about her. So, let’s get to know Rita.
What is your full name?
Rita Calabrese
How old are you?
67
What is your profession?
Reporter for the Morris County Gazette. . .but sometimes keeping tabs on my big, messy Italian-American family seems like a full-time job too!
Do you have a significant other?
Yes, I’ve been married to Sal for forty years! He’s a little bit of a curmudgeon, but he’s my curmudgeon.
What is their name and profession?
Sal – he’s an entrepreneur, but not the trendy, hoodie-wearing kind. He owns a nursery, and people drive over 100 miles for our Christmas trees!
Do you have any children?
Three – and they’ve caused every gray root on my head!
Do you have any siblings?
I have an identical twin, although many people don’t realize it. Rose has my features, but a lifelong of no children (i.e. no stress) and hot yoga means she’s thinner, fitter, and less wrinkled!
Are your parents nearby?
They passed away many years ago.
Who is your best friend?
Emma Schmalzgruben, a widow well over 100 years old who keeps vigil beside her deceased husbands in the town cemetery and delights in reading them the paper, especially my articles, out loud. She’s seen everything, done everything. . .and knows everything going on.
Do you have any pets?
Two Bernese mountain dogs, Luciano (named after Luciano Pavarotti) and Cesare
What town do you live in?
Acorn Hollow, NY – It’s an Italian-American community nestled in the Upper Hudson Valley of New York and it’s absolutely bucolic, especially when the leaves turn in Fall. . .unless, of course, there’s a murder!
Do you live in a small town or a big city?
Small city – pop approximately 2,500
Type of dwelling and do you own or rent?
Bungalow; own
What is your favorite spot in your home?
The kitchen! If I’m allowed to include the yard, though, it’s a tie with my garden. I love whipping up homecooked meals with produce from my garden. Some of my best dishes are sweet potato gnocchi with short rib ragu, stuffed peppers, and chocolate-drenched peanut butter biscotti.
Favorite meal and dessert?
Sweet potato gnocchi with short rib ragu and tiramisu for dessert!
Do you have any hobbies?
Cooking, quilting, singing in my church’s funeral choir, walking my dogs
What is your favorite vacation spot?
Italy! I’m the world’s biggest Italophile. I speak Italian (it’s my native tongue, actually), dream in Italian, watch crime dramas in Italian, cook Italian food. . .you get the idea!
What music do you listen to?
Opera
Do you have a favorite book?
My nonna’s well-loved cookbook
What is your idea of a really fun time?
On a perfect day, I’d get my story on the front page of the Morris County Gazette, outwit our bumbling police chief and solve a murder, get my hopelessly lovelorn daughter Gina a date with a nice Italian boy. . .and be home in time for a great Italian dinner!
If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
Confessions of an Italian Matriarch: Food, Family, Fun. . .and Crime-Fighting
Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
Amateur. Occasionally I collaborate with Detective Benedetto of the Acorn Hollow Police, but my usual sidekicks are members of my family. My son Marco is a doctor and has useful medical knowledge, and my husband’s shady cousin Calvino has lots of useful “connections” in the criminal underworld. And then there’s the sulky teenaged intern at the newspaper, who occasionally begrudgingly helps me out.
In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
A leisurely breakfast of a latte and homemade chocolate-dipped peanut butter biscotti with my gruff but affectionate husband, Sal. Then a nice long walk with Luciano and Cesare, my Bernese mountain dogs who carry little flasks of limoncello around their necks and respond to my commands in Italian with alacrity. We often leave little care packages for our down-on-their-luck neighbors (with the utmost secrecy of course, made possible by my network of informants) or stop by the cemetery, where we chat with Emma Schmalzgruben, the eternally black-clad widow who reads the newspaper to her three deceased husbands, rain or shine. Then I’m hard at work on the latest front-page story for the Morris County Gazette. In the late afternoon, I whip up a homemade Italian meal for my family!
Of Masques and Murder is the fourth book in the “Rita Calabrese” cozy mystery series, released November 13, 2020.
In the Italian-American community of Acorn Hollow, it’s Carnevale. The townspeople are reveling in masked balls and lively processions—and overindulging in meaty lasagnas and rich desserts like sanguinaccio and bomboloni.
For once, though, the town’s most ardent Italophile, matriarch-turned-reporter Rita Calabrese, is not in the holiday spirit. With no crime to solve, nothing to write about, and the clock ticking down towards her hasty and ill-advised Lenten resolution to stop interfering in (or, as she would say, “improving”) the lives of others, she’s staring down forty days of sheer boredom.
But that’s before her twin sister is blackmailed for a scandalous indiscretion and the world’s most uncouth, boorish houseguest shows up and refuses to leave until Rita gives him a crash course in feminism and romance, all to woo back his estranged wife.
Rita tries to adhere to her Lenten resolution, but fate has other plans. When a friend’s wine is poisoned at a masquerade ball and a local vintner’s glamorous fiancée is murdered, Rita bows to the inevitable and dives into an investigation rife with suspects and riven by romantic entanglements and family drama.
Featuring mouth-watering recipes for Italian classics, including lasagna and Italian Easter pie!
About the author
Maureen Klovers is the creator of the Rita Calabrese culinary cozy series, as well as a traditional mystery series featuring lawyer-turned-bellydancer Jeanne Pelletier. A former spy and middle school teacher, she has a keen sense of adventure: she’s hiked through the jungle to Machu Picchu, toured a notorious Bolivian prison with a German narco-trafficker, and fished for piranhas in Venezuela. She’s the mother of a toddler and a black Lab and enjoys testing recipes and speaking Italian.
All comments are welcomed.
Great interview. This sounds like a book I would love to read.
I recently read a previous book and really got into this series.
Thanks, Alicia! I’m glad you’re enjoying the series.
Thank you, Jeanne! Yes, my readers say that I have a very character-driven mystery. Rita is loosely based on a neighbor of ours I knew growing up!
Sounds fun. I read one of the earlier books in the series and really enjoyed it. I married into an Italian family so the characters felt familiar.
Thanks, Sharon! It’s nice hearing from you again, and I hope you and your family are well.
I’m falling in love with this character!!
Thanks, Kathy! I hope you enjoy the book!