Welcome
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- Italian Culture Website – Family friendly fun topics for Italophiles
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- Books about Italy, Italian culture, hyphenateds, Ancient Rome
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- Women’s Fiction – Psychological Novel set in Venice
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- Romance + Satire Novel – Two escapees from the wired world find love
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- Sweet Romance Novel – Hyphenated Italian protagonists find love
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- Short Italophile Fiction Collection – Crime and romance in tasty morsels
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- Romance Crime Novel – Italian solves crimes in The Hague and finds love
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- Traditional Murder Mystery – Long, leisurely, vicarious trip to Tuscany
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- Gilded Age Mystery Series – For YA and adults – NYC debutante detective
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- Medieval Cookbooks – Origins of many Italian dishes
Italophile
Candida Martinelli is a confirmed Italophile. To share her love of Italian culture, in 2003 she established the Italian culture website Candida Martinelli’s Italophile Site at Italophiles.com. The website has grown into a popular entertainment and reference site.
To share her love of Italy and books, she created in 2014 the Italophile Book Reviews Site which has grown quickly into an influential and respected source for books about Italy, Ancient Rome, Hyphenated Italians and Italian Culture.
Author
Candida writes clean fiction for Italophiles, each book unique.
Women’s Fiction + Psychological Novel
Katie and Arthur Thompson begin their retirement travels in Venice, Italy. Nothing goes as planned, putting both of them in danger. Timeless Venice works its magic on the couple in unexpected ways. “On a knife’s edge, was how I felt.” – Book’s Narrator. Available in two formats: e-book and paperback.
There is a page on this site with more information and direct links to Amazon.com.
Romance + Satire Novel
Gina Accornero’s quiet life is threatened when the media invade her sleepy seaside town in search of a disgraced TV star, Robert Granieri. A clean, fun romantic tale, available in two formats: e-book and paperback.
There’s a book trailer and more information on a page on this site.
Romance + Family Life Novel
A contemporary romance featuring hyphenated Italians who find each other in the cultural mix of an immigrant nation. A clean, fun romantic tale, available in two formats: e-book and paperback.
There’s a book trailer and more information on a page on this site.
Short Story Collection
If you enjoy short stories in the style of Daphne du Maurier, dealing with murder, crime and the sometimes difficult relations between men and women, then you should enjoy Candida’s Italophile Short Stories available in two formats: e-book and paperback.
There is a page on this site with more information and direct links to Amazon.com.
Crime-Romance Novel
The novel The Hague featuring an Italian working at Europol’s Headquarters in The Netherlands, is a book for fans of European crime fiction, especially A.C. Baantjer’s Inspector DeKok series, and for fans of cozy mysteries, who enjoy clean mysteries with light romance.
There is more about the book on a page on this same site.
Traditional Mystery Novel
Candida is the author of the traditional murder mystery novel An Extra Virgin Pressing Murder. In the British tradition of country-house murder mysteries, this long, leisurely read is clean fiction set in beautiful Tuscany, Italy.
There is more information on the book at its website.
Historical Young-Adult Mystery Series
A lover of classic mysteries, Candida re-imagined and re-wrote an old series for new readers. The Violet Strange Mysteries are clean, direct, easy to read novellas for young lovers of Gilded Age stories, teen detectives, and classic mysteries.
The Violet Strange Mysteries series’ website has more information about the nine-novel historical mystery series for tweens, teens and adults, and about the era and Anna Katherine Green, whose 1917 series inspired Candida’s novellas.
Editor
Classic Short British Mysteries
Candida is the editor of A Collection of Short Mysteries. The book introduces the reader to classic short mystery stories from famous mystery writers of the past: four authors, two stories each. The hope is that the reader will discover in the collection an author and series they enjoy, then seek out the rest of the series.
There is a page on this site that tells more about the stories and authors.
Cookbook from the Middle-Ages
Candida is an editor of the The Anonymous Al-Andalus Cookbook. Spain’s Andalusia was under Arab-Moorish rule in the Middle Ages, just as Sicily was. Much of what is unique about Sicilian cuisine comes from the early Arab-Moor colonizers of the island who brought with them new agricultural techniques, new plants and spices, and new cooking methods. Much Italian cuisine, too, is influenced by the Moors.
Candida Martinelli 